Three Worlds, a Smith, and a Prince
by Yakosh
Summary: A pair of friends who have more in common then interests, despite being so different in others, a prince and a smith are forced to leave the comfort of their home country of Aincrad and head on a journey to survive. AU where there is no 'real world,' takes place in a world which is a fusion of Aincrad, Alfheim, and Underworld. Spoilers for LN. T for violence and swearing. [Hiatus]
1. Chapter 1

_**NOT about Lisbeth, though she**_ **MAY** _ **be a character,**_ **NOT** _ **a main one.**_

 **Another story, sigh.**

 **No 'real world,' takes place in a world which is the fusion of Aincrad (non flying and really having little relation to Aincrad in SAO, just happens to be known as the lands of Aincrad), Alfheim, and Underworld. (Little interaction at the beginning)**

 **Kirito is a prince (a literal prince, not like in 'Prince of Swords'(I don't even need to tell you who the story is by, it's the most favorited story of all SAO fanfics, you can find it easier that way anyway, just go to search opens and changed the sort options from update date to favorites)), OC main, though Kirito and possibly Asuna are going to be around quite a bit. Inspired by ' _Prince of Aincrad_ ' by _CloudyLightning_ , if you like this kind of story, go read it. Just do. It's awesome, one of my favorite stories over all on this site, I'd say. Actually, just go ahead and read all their (her?) stories (at least the SAO ones, I don't know about the other ones)**

 **I'll try to keep the OC from being _too_ powerful, but it probably won't happen.**

 **Unlike my stories up to now, I will try to write in 3rd person because emotions are easier in 3rd person. On the other hand, writing in general is easier in 1st person so I might stick with it.**

 **I chose the start date to be November 6th but nothing like in the original SAO will happen.**

 **Please tell me what you think of this first chapter via PM or review.**

 **Some obvious questions (totally not things I just felt like saying):**

 **Yes, real sword making takes longer. Yes the techniques described in the beginning are generally used for making katana's, well some anyway, others I practically made up on the spot or were inspired by things unclear to me. As for the sharpening, the time taken is based off my own experience with this sharpening technique (obviously not from scratch, I just know how to sharpen a kitchen knife to the point where it can cut a small tomato without holding it in place or squishing it) and adjusting for the size of the blade and that it is far duller to start with.**

 **Lastly, to CloudyLightning (if you so happen to read this, however unlikely), A, please update any of your SAO stories, I don't care which one, and B, if you feel like this story is too based off of yours, please PM me and we can discuss what to do about it.**

* * *

 **(3rd person, Karu, 722 SYS (Standard Year System), November 6th, 2:04am)**

Working away at a sword she didn't exactly know why she was making. That's what Karu had been up to for the past 6 hours almost continuously and why the blacksmith was up till 2 in the morning. She had been making this sword for the past few days however.

It was a simple longsword in appearance. Made of high-quality steel with little to nothing other than carbon and iron, using iron sand instead of iron ore. The young girl had hammered it flat, folded it, and planned to repeat the process a total of 12 times, 11 of which had been completed to strengthen the metal. The blade had two parts, the core and the edge, technically three as the edge was being done in two pieces, since it was a double edged blade. The core was made of a tougher and less brittle alloy since it was the structural part of the blade, it had already been completed. The metal currently being worked had a greater amount of carbon in it than the complete part, to make it harder so it would keep its edge better.

As the last few hammer blows hit the girl is satisfied and takes off one of the thick leather gloves she was wearing and raises her goggles, wiping the sweat off her face.

She puts it back on and picks up the repeatedly folded ingot with tongs, putting it in the forge to heat it once more for working.

Hammer blow after hammer blow falls on the ingot, which was being 'rolled' to make it extend in one direction instead of two. Slowly but surely it turns into a long piece of metal, several millimeters thick, about two centimeters long, and 115 centimeters long. It was still glowing hot as it had been heated several times during the process.

The two other readily available pieces of metal were put into the forge, one in approximately the shape of a blade with a small metal rod sticking out of the base and the other a nearly identical, rectangular piece.

At the moment when the 3 pieces were the same temperature, the remaining piece was put into the forge and they were all heated till they glowed a brilliant yellow.

The core was taken out, along with one of the two edges—which was rather fragile—and with a special implement and tongs, was folded over the edge of the core in such a way that it was a bit farther away from the core at the very tip. This part needed to be done quickly because at this point, there was no turning back without starting over entirely. The edge was hammered until the two pieces fused seamlessly along the whole blade and the other edge was taken from the forge, the process was repeated. Then as the blade cooled a little so it wouldn't bend so easily, it was picked up by the rod sticking out of the part that would be touching the handle with tongs and lowered into the water with a satisfying hiss.

As the blade finally cooled, the girl breathed in relief and took off both gloves, along with the thick leather apron and goggles.

She checks the clock on the wall—something that was rather rare and expensive, but she had decided to purchase. The clock read 3:01.

Karu heads to one of the three connected rooms and collapses on her bed, not bothering to change. She was physically tired more so then mentally. Well she did remember to remove her thick leather boots.

* * *

The next 'morning' she awoke at a little past midday and was very glad her shop was closed today anyway. That wasn't to say people weren't allowed to come, but it just meant that they shouldn't expect her to there.

She heads to the room where she had left the blade and takes it out with her barehands, since it had long since cooled. Since it wasn't sharpened or polished it didn't look perfect, but it did look beautiful in its own way.

The next step would be to polish and sharpen the blade, which were practically the same thing. Sharpening involved grinding the blade away on whetstones with varying size of particles, starting with coarse whetstones and heading to fine ones. Polishing was done with a fine abrasive whetstone which one held in their hand and rubbed along the blade, instead of being like sharpening, where the whetstone was fixed and you moved the blade. Sharpening would take 4-5 hours, but polishing would probably take considerably less than an hour.

As the girl ground away at the blade for hours a small smile was on her face, this is what she did. She made swords, it made her happy and that's why she did it. Every time a sword was completed it gave her immense satisfaction.

About 5 hours after she began, the girl lifted the blade off the very fine whetstone and rinsed off the abrasive that remained on it. She stood back to the window and looked at the blade, there was no white line visible on either side and the girl grinned with satisfaction, a little bit of polishing and the blade would be finished.

* * *

The handle that the rod at the base of the blade was inserted into consisted of two metal halves that had been prepared earlier with a simple guard which was also split in half and was shaped as if someone with an arm about 2 centimeters long had walked around the blade as far as they could while still touching it. Well, that wasn't exactly true, as it was then somewhat stretched in the already wider direction. The counter balance on the hilt was also split in half an was shaped like a flattened sphere.

The two halves were were put around the rod, but not before some molten copper had been poured into the grooves to firmly hold it together and the hilt was dunked in cold water to cool the copper. A dark leather strap was carefully wrapped around the metal handle and the sword was finished. She slipped it into one of the sheaths, previously prepared to fit a sword approximately that size.

The happy girl removes all her smithing equipment and picks up the sword, brandishing it. The girl was talented with a sword and somewhat felt it was a waste not to learn to use one properly, on the other hand, she didn't really want to because of how her father had died, killed by a group of bandits that had called themselves Laughing Coffin while on a hunting trip, at least, that's what the lone survivor had said. She did want to learn to fight with a sword at some point, but for now she satisfied both conflicting sides by watching various practices. Being the princes's best friend had its perks, like being able to watch the guard and knight practices, something that normally wouldn't really be allowed.

She had never known her mother though.

When the girl checked the time she found that it was almost 7 and she walked out into the shop part of the building, which was a smithy, a house, and a shop in one.

She put the sword up in the place of her previous prized blade—behind the counter and above her head—which was a rapier which had been bought by the vice-leader of the warrior guild known as the Knights of the Blood Oath, known to be the strongest of all the combat guilds in Aincrad. Why they referred to themselves in short as KOB and not KBO she didn't really know, since it was **K** nights of the **B** lood **O** ath, KBO.

The bells on the door ring and a black haired teen two years older than her walks in.

"Hey Kirito, how you doing?" the cheerful black haired female smith asks one of her few friends, who happens to be the prince. His real name was Kazuto, but he preferred to be referred to as Kirito outside the castle so that people wouldn't recognize him as the prince. He had never bought anything, saying it was a waste for such good weapons to be used by someone they were not perfect for, but he often visited the shop just to chat or marvel at the weapons.

If someone had seen them without knowing that one was of the royal family and the other wasn't, they may have even assumed that they were half-siblings or cousins. Both moved with a similar, almost inhuman grace—something which was somewhat odd for a blacksmith—and were very good with animals as well, even able to communicate with them, though neither of them knew the other had that ability.

"I'm doing alright..." he trails off, noting the sword in the previously empty spot reserved for her best swords.

"You wanna try it out?" she asks hopefully.

"If you don't mind," he says.

The girl grabs the sword and passes it to the prince.

He brandishes the sword with a smile and without hesitation asks, "How much does it cost," startling the girl who hadn't actually priced it yet.

"Um... you're buying it?" she asks.

"Yeah, it feels perfect," he says. It made her rather proud that her sword had been instantly purchased by the prince, who was known by her—though not many—to be an amazing swordsman. The way she knew she had talent was that she had managed to last a whole 2 seconds in the first sword fight she ever had against him. As in the first sword fight ever, not the first against specifically him. Oh sure she'd watched practice fights before, but she'd never been in one.

"Uh... well just pay whatever you feel is fair, since I haven't actually decided on a price," she says, slightly embarrassed.

The sum the prince gives her seems fairly ridiculous and she pushes it back, "No way, that's WAY too much!"

"It's a better sword than any other sword of its type I can remember, except the ancient King's Blade. There's _no way_ it's not worth this much." he says adamantly and the girl reluctantly takes the ridiculous amount of col.

"So do you have any plans for today?" asks the nearly 16 year old boy.

"I planned to just go and get some fresh air, I've been in a place as hot as an oven for hours today and yesterday," the girl answers.

"Mind if I come with you? I found a cool place out in the forest near the edge of the city with a very nice view," he says.

"I guess I don't mind," she says. She had long since learned that doing everything he wanted just because he was the prince pissed him off and that he wanted her to treat him just as a friend. She had also ditched all 'Your Highness' and 'My Prince' a while ago, something that annoyed the royal staff considerably when she did it in the castle.

She snatches a longsword off the wall and puts it on her waist. After their short—and yet surprisingly long—duel, the prince had asked the smith to carry around a sword when possible because she may be attacked or held hostage as a friend of the prince and she had enough skill and strength to fight off someone not particularly skilled.

* * *

 **(1st person, Karu)**

The prince led the smith out into the forest and to the edge of a cliff, with a beautiful view.

"Isn't it beautiful?" the prince asks.

"Yeah... I'm just wondering when you found the time to explore the forest..." I say.

"Um..." he doesn't answer.

"You ditched something, didn't you?" I scold.

"Yeah," he says with a sigh.

"You know you shouldn't right? If Aincrad gets a king as tardy as you, there'll be problems," I say.

"I know, it's just... so boring, I already know everything I was being taught and it was pointless even if I didn't know it," he says.

"Alright, but at least make sure not to miss _anything_ important." Look at me, scolding a prince whose older than me for missing classes... If I were considerably older or he wasn't a prince, it would be somewhat normal, but like this.

"Hey Kirito, you know we're being watched? In the woods, about 5 o'clock," I ask in a whisper, pretending to just lean my head on his shoulder tiredly. Well, that was half of it.

"Yeah," he answers in a whisper, not minding me leaning my head on his shoulder. I let my left hand idly fall to my waist where my sword is sheathed as I sense the person becoming a bit more prominient.

"Do you think it could be a guard that's supposed to watch you? Or someone hostile, I don't feel any particular bloodlust," I whisper.

"Maybe call them out?" I ask, once again in a whisper. From someone watching's perspective, I would simply be whispering whatever I was saying because I was close to his ear and I didn't want to be too loud, if they even noticed I was saying anything.

"We could probably take them, since there's just one," he says.

I slowly stand up and stretch, Kirito doing the same.

"Well, let's head back?" I 'offer.'

Kirito nods and we had exactly in the direction of the person we noticed.

The person, seeming to realize they'd been noticed slowly walks out. Both of us draw our swords and Kirito steps slightly in front of me, brandishing my recently forged sword.

The person was someone I vaguely recognized, Kirito however immediately recognized the woman and sheathed his sword, implying for me to do the same.

"I asked to go _alone_ , you know I don't need protection," Kirito says, almost complaining.

"It was by the King's orders," she says.

"I don't think you _can_ protect Kirito. Unless you're the strongest guard in the castle or something, he'd beat you in a fight and you couldn't even hide your presence well enough to be a covert guard. On top of that, you didn't even notice that we noticed you or that we were focused on you," I say.

"Hide you presence..." she echoes.

"I thought 'detecting someones presence' was something only the Prince could do..." she says. Wait really? But I know people who can hide their presence other than Kirito. I guess other people just don't have it in the same, conscious sense as Kirito and I.

I swear she's thinking I'm some unannounced sibling or cousin of Kirito's. Who knows, with all the similarities, I might be. I look the same, I have the same nearly-unique abilities, both have great talent with swords, we even act similar in some ways.

I never really considered it before, but I would be kinda surprised at this point if we weren't related in **some** way, maybe not by blood, maybe not as close as cousins, but seriously, it's just too unlikely. Some part of me just hoped we weren't siblings.

"My Prince, please return to the castle, it is getting late," the guard says.

With a sigh Kirito agrees, but adds a condition.

"I'm going to take her home, head back to the castle. I promise I'll come right after," he says.

"Alright," the guard says hesitantly and retreats into the woods.

"Being a prince must suuuuck," I say, dragging out the word.

"Let's go back," he says.

"Alright," I say and we walk through the forest, glancing back to see the setting sun.

* * *

The next morning I make my way up to the castle, the guards letting me pass on the orders of the Prince. I had waited till there were few people around and had the hood of my coat up when I walked in because I didn't really want it to be known that I was allowed into the castle with no questions asked.

I was here for no particular reason, just because I wanted to take a break.

I silently walked through the maze that was the castle, one which I had finished memorizing recently, at this point I would say I knew the castle than most of the servants and guards who work here, given that Kirito had shown me a bunch of secret passages and such.

From the perspective of most people, it would seem ridiculous. Just some random smith who happens to be a friend of the prince to know the royal castle inside out and know every single secret passage generally reserved for the king and his direct family. It felt awesome though, being able to navigate a place where even the people who live here don't know everything.

I was currently headed towards the library where Kirito was usually at this time of day, being bored to death by boring lessons on stuff he knew. At least, that's what he said.

Checking to see that nobody was around I pressed on a brick on the wall near the door of the library. There was a way to spy on—and enter/leave—practically any room in the castle from the corridors and there was a rather complicated rule that told you where the trigger bricks were so you don't have to remember it.

I didn't just walk in because Kirito had asked me not to randomly barge in because there could some annoyance, confusion, or trouble from it.

As I peek in front above I notice Kirito glance up to where I was and see a tiny smile appear on his face. He looked like he wasn't paying the slightest attention to what the teacher was saying and seemed to be lost in thought, well at least until I showed up, now he was just occasionally lost in thought. I sighed, silently wishing for some sort of telepathy or some other way to chat with him.

Thankfully his 'class' ended in a few minutes and the teacher left, I lid the hatch-ish open and dropped down, closing it behind me.

"Hey Karu," Kirito says.

"Hey," I say.

"What you up to?" he asks.

"Just taking a break. I thought I'd stop by since you seem to be perpetually bored," I say.

"Oh, well, I'm pretty much free for the day, so I was planning on stopping by your shop and seeing if you were up to anything..." he says.

"Times like these I wish I had some other friends, 'cause we both have no idea what to do right now," I say with a sigh.

"Do you not know anybody but me?" he asks, surprised.

"Well, I know a few people, but I can't really call any of them close friends, or really friends for that matter. And even those I can count on one hand," I say.

"Oh, why's that?" he asks.

"Guess I'm just not particularly good with people, probably just get along with you so well because we're so similar," I say.

He nods idly and asks, "Since we don't really know what to do, would you like me to teach how to fight with a sword some?"

This again... do I want to learn? Yes, yes I do. Father certainly wouldn't be happy if I died, and for some reason, I get the feeling I might need it soon. Also, I did enjoy it.

"... Let's do it," I say with slight hesitation.

* * *

Kirito and I walk through the halls, earning no second glances from the various servants and headed to the training arena. Today was a day off for all the guards and knights who would be training, so there would be only a few very passionate ones there and thus, plenty of room.

There were two main training arenas, one was a large courtyard and the other was fully enclosed and somewhat smaller, the one we were currently headed to was the outdoor one because it was larger, the weather was nice, and Kirito had yet to see the sun today.

As we walk into the sunny area we have to wait for our eyes to adjust. I look down into the arena and in the middle of the arena was a girl who looked fairly similar to Kirito, the girl who was officially his sister and by blood his cousin. She was sparring with a knight and behind the knight who was currently losing was a line of knights.

The girl was a very good at sword fighting, however, her style was more of a tournament/sport style and a somewhat less practical as a real combat style. The movements were all very well trained but nearly as limited as sword skills. It looked very beautiful, but it wasn't very practical. I just said that like 3 times in a row.

Thankfully nearly half the arena was still empty so Kirito and I wouldn't need to wait. We approach the edge of the arena and drop down from the viewing areas, which were just 2 meters above the arena floor. Yes there were stairs, but stairs are for the weak... and sane.

We each grab a training sword, one for Kirito as well, since he wasn't going all out but was going to teach me.

"You wanna just start off with a practice match?" Kirito asks.

"It's hopeless on my side, but sure," I say and ready my sword. Basically the only advantage I had going for me was strength, since I spent an average of at least a few hours a day swinging a heavy hammer—deliberately switching arms to not have my right arm be strong while my left was weak, especially since I was ambidextrous—I was much stronger than him. Since he was rather small for his age, he didn't really have any reach advantage, which basically meant that his advantages were speed and skill.

And I was screwed, because no matter how strong I was, if I couldn't land a single hit and couldn't move fast enough to block, I would not be able to win no matter how strong I am.

Kirito readies his sword and I idly note that the guards who had been previously waiting to fight Suguha—and Suguha herself—we watching.

"3... 2... 1... GO!" as Kirito reached zero he dashed forward, I on the other hand decided that meeting him at that speed would not be a good idea and jumped back, holding my sword horizontally in front of me and blocking his first overhead strike, immediately swinging it forward right after collision.

Unfortunately Kirito ducked under my strike and I once again retreated to avoid his horizontal swipe. As he approached I slashed downwards with a vertical strike, blocking his slanted attack, unfortunately, he was able to redirect his sword before me and his sword nearly touches me a little above the waist. I lean to the right and back and the blow swipes just past me, touching my shirt.

I cartwheel backwards away from him to regain my balance and hold my sword in front of me with both hands.

This time we both dash forward. I duck down and slash, unfortunately missing by a few centimeters. Kirito's sword stops a few centimeters away from my neck.

"I win," he says.

"I'm not surprised, but hey, at least I lasted longer than last time," I say.

"Seriously though, are you sure you haven't practiced with a sword, 'cause you're way better than anyone who's had one practice match and just watched people fight with swords should be," Kirito says.

"You're one to talk." Kirito had been insanely good the first time he touched a sword too. "Since when are you that good? I've never once seen you fight before," Suguha asks.

"Um... dunno. I've fought Kirito once before, swung some swords around without any real purpose, and watched practice matches, but that's about it," I say.

"Anyway, weren't you all training?" Kirito asks, taking the attention off me.

Suguha and the knights return to their matches and Kirito says, "Okay, let's do some practice."

* * *

Several hours of swinging swords later I was sitting against the wall of the arena next to Kirito, panting slightly.

"You alright?" Kirito asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit tired," I say with a deep breath.

"Well, seeing as nobody should be able to do that for that long on their first time, it's not surprising," Kirito answers.

"Hey, I may not have done much sword fighting, but I'm not unfit or anything like that," I say.

"You wanna do some more?" he asks.

"Nah, I'm good," I say.

"Thought so. Let's go get something to eat then."

"Where? It's not like there's alway food available at the castle," I say.

"Well, if we looked hard enough we could find something, and anyway, we can just go and eat in the city."

"I'll take option B."

Kirito nods and we leave the arena, quickly leaving the castle—which was very quick from the training arena—and heading down to the city.

"So what do you want to eat?" he asks.

"Food," I say jokingly.

"Alright, what kind?" he asks.

"You pick, since you inevitably won't let me pay," I answer.

"I don't let you pay because I'm the one with the practically unlimited supply of money which my parents want me to spend _more_ of," he says.

"Alright, fine, but still, you pick," I say.

"You do."

"You do."

"You do."

"You pick."

"Fine."

* * *

 **Hows that for a first chapter of yet another story... I'm never gonna get one done, am I? Maybe Duo of Darkness, but other than that.**

 **Well anyway, please review and tell me what you thought.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, here's another chapter. Looks like I'm continuing the 'start a story, put out 2 chapters, run out of motivation' trend. Well, hopefully not the last part.**

* * *

 **(1st person, Karu)**

"Your 16th birthday?" I ask.

"Well yeah, I mean it's not that surprising that there's gonna be huge party, I just wish there wasn't, or that I didn't have to attend," Kirito complains, currently hiding from the castle staff—well, a specific few anyway—in the smithy part of my shop/smithy/house.

"I'm surprised you managed to sneak out without anyone following you," I say, not actually at all surprised.

"You could have pulled it off just as easily," he points out.

"No quite, after all, I don't have as much practice," I say.

"True."

"So what's gonna be with the birthday party?" I ask.

"Well you know how almost nobody really knows what I look like? Like, it's not a secret but I've never made any public appearances. Well anyway, it's going to be a huge masquerade ball open to practically everyone, even fairies have been invited," he answers.

"Sounds more like an assassination attempt than a birthday party to me," I say.

"I can handle myself, don't worry," he says.

"I know, but still. If it is, that means whoever came up with the idea wants you dead, which means someone with a good deal of power wants you dead, likely in the council since that's pretty much the only people who could make that sort of decision other than your father," I say.

"I'll watch them when I get the chance, I guess. Anyway other than the ball, there's gonna a huge feast and such, followed by a party where desert will be served and people will be able to just talk," Kirito says.

"Seems rather grand, then again, not surprising for the prince's 16th birthday. It's in a little over two weeks, right?" I ask.

Kirito nods. "Unless you're against it, I'm gonna follow and observe some of the council members. Maybe I can even get the party canceled if I can prove it's an assassination attempt," I say.

"I'm not really against it, but I doubt you would be able get it canceled even if you prove it because it would ruin the royal family's reputation to a certain extent. But if you really want to, I don't mind," Kirito says.

"Anyway, I doubt they're looking in this area any more, since they started here, so we can probably come out," I say.

One of the castle staff had come to check if he was here, but I told him he wasn't in the shop, which was technically true since I didn't consider the smithy part of the shop

"I guess you're right, but we should still be careful, they'll be pretty much willing to drag me back by force," Kirito says.

"Hey Kirito, how many times per day to you wish you weren't the prince?" I ask.

"At least 10," he answers in a somewhat joking tone.

"Every time I talk to you, you seem to have one problem or another with prince stuff," I say with a slight laugh.

"Hey, I didn't sign up for being a prince," he says with a slight pout.

"I'm sure there are thousands upon thousands of people who'd _love_ to trade places with you. Just for the record, I'm not among them," I say.

"Heh, I guessed. Unfortunate too, because you could probably pretend to be me for a while if you wanted to."

"With how similar we look, how well I know you, and how short you are, it probably wouldn't be too hard."

Kirito pouts a bit at me teasing him about his height. "Seriously though, you're as tall as 14 year old girl at 16, that's definitely short."

"Hey! It's not my fault," he says, complaining.

"Maybe it's all that sword training or something," I say.

"Well, I'd rather be short and know how to fight with a sword than the other way around," he says.

* * *

Wow, there's a way to spy on the council room, that's cool.

Well one of them is awfully suspicious, constantly trying to undermine the King and complaining. Also loud. So loud, I almost wanted to drop something on his head. The King would certainly be happy about it, given that he hated the guy, however, thanks to the system under which this worked, he couldn't do anything about it.

As the meeting about whatever was adjourned a followed him through the various secret passages and, as he left the castle, I followed him, silently.

If he does something like enter his house or whatever I'll go but I had a bad feeling about this so I was following him. Suspiciously, he took the road not towards the city but the smaller one which slowly turned into a path and led into the forest. Thanks to him having no skills whatsoever in watching for people—apparently—he still hadn't caught onto me.

"They're late," the council member says in an irritated voice. Well well well, what do we have here. Wait, you're supposed to say that aloud.

A bit later, a group of men dressed in black cloaks show up. Other than that the only thing they really had in common was the tattoo on their right hand and aura of bloodlust that made me want to run and cower in fear. Part of me. The other part... _wanted revenge_. Laughing Coffin, that's who they were. The murders who killed my father and many, many others.

Thankfully, the third and smartest part of me decided to just stay put extremely quietly. Okay, the run and cower in fear part was probably smarter.

"All the preparations are complete, _my lord_ ," one of them says, though the words _my lord_ were said in a way that was obviously sarcastic.

"If that prince isn't dead by the end of the month, there will be repercussions for you," the councilor says. And if you aren't in prison by the end of the week there will be repercussions for someone.

I must be totally insane, because I muster up some courage and silently step out in such a way that I was hidden in shadows.

I draw my sword soundlessly and the deliberately step on a twig. All 5 people gathered here—4 Laughing Coffin members and the councilor—turned towards me.

"My Prince?!" the councilor asks with fake respect and very real surprise before saying, "Wait, you're not the prince."

"And you're an idiot," I say in a voice that hides my fear as best as I can. Then again, since we have about the same height, I'm wearing clothes similar to his right now, it's dark, we have similar hair and face, and I am using a stance that was basically a clone of his, it wasn't that surprising that he mistook me for Kirito.

"So which of you is PoH?" I ask in a somewhat jovial tone, however if you listened closely, you would probably here something much, much darker. PoH was the name by which the man who killed my father went, along with the rest of the hunting group except the one surviver. Perhaps it was a shortening of something, like Prince of Hell. Fitting for someone like him.

When none of them saying anything I ask, "None of you? Disappointing. I really, _really_ wanted to kill him."

The tone I said that in definitely made the councilor cower in fear, and I swear even the hardened murderers shivered.

"You're discussing assassinating the prince, there's gotta be at least one important person here. You mind introducing me to your leader?" I ask.

I turn to the councilor, "I _almost_ want to kill you for trying to assassinate my friend, but I think I'll just lock you up for the rest of your life."

"Like anyone would believe your words," he says, obviously scared. One of the members of Laughing Coffin laughs at him, "She's the prince's best friend, of course they'll value her words more than yours."

"If you're that smart, I wonder why you haven't run away yet," I say, not really wanting to fight them.

"I'd ask the same question, 4 on 1 seem to be pretty one-sided odds, in our favor," says the one who'd done all the talking so far. In truth they he was completely right. I wonder why _I_ haven't run away yet. It's not like I need to drag the councilor to the prison, either he returns and gets arrested or he doesn't return and probably gets killed be Laughing Coffin.

"Hmm... you're probably right but, I guess I'm just don't have that much common sense. That, or maybe I'm not alone," I say, though the last part was completely a bluff.

"I have reinforcements coming, so I suggest you run," I say, playing along with the bluff I had decided to start. Why I was so unwilling to run away myself, I don't know.

"Right, like we'd fall for a bluff like that," he says in an ever-so-slightly nervous voice.

"You seem awfully nervous for someone who thinks that," I say. Why? Beats me.

"You're boring me," he says, a dagger appearing in his hand, likely poisoned. Basically, I get hit, I probably lose. He held it backhanded, which meant that he would have even shorter reach than normal for dagger.

He leaps forward, swinging his dagger at me.

I parry and leap back. Technically speaking, I should have the advantage, since I have a sword and he has a dagger, which gives me a huge advantage in range. Unfortunately, he's incredibly fast.

I swing at him, my blade scratching along his left arm before he can bring it back. He punches, aiming next to my neck so that the dagger would hit me. I step to the right and grab his arm, bringing it to my knee, kneeing him in the forearm. He yanks his arm back and I let go, not wanting to be pulled along.

He jumps back and his 3—presumably—underlings jump forward, all with daggers drawn and held in various ways.

They started to attack, but only 1 by 1. Do they have bad coordination? Or are they just playing with me.

One of them lungs forward with his dagger and I bring my sword down on his wrist, cutting his hand off. I cover my mouth and jump back, trying not to throw up as the smell of blood and iron filled the air.

The man screamed in pain and grabbed his wrist with his other hand.

The other 2 snarled at me, both jumping forward, I parry the one on my right and dodge to the right avoiding the left ones dagger... or so I thought.

The dagger cuts through my left sleeve and cuts a shallow cut into my left forearm. Almost immediately my arm goes numb and I'm practically unable to move it. Paralysis, I guess I should be glad it's not a lethal poison. The shallow cut doesn't seem to have been enough to paralyze more than just my arm, so I guess I'm lucky in that regard.

I jump back and hold my sword in front of me, carefully watching both opponents.

They attack at the same time, slashing extremely fast, simply trying to overwhelm me with the quantity of blows. And unfortunately, it was working. When I tried to retreat, they followed, so that wasn't an option. I was 'somewhat' regretting not escaping when I had the chance. And now that I cut the hand off of one of them, I doubt they'd let me get away with just death either.

I swing my sword with as much strength as I can muster, which decreased by a little with every scratch I received. The two jump back, giving me a window to jump back myself. I continue to retreat, not holding much hope for it, but if I can slowly draw the battle out of the forest...

"Where do you think you're going, little girl?" asks a creepy voice from behind me. When did...? Oh, the fourth one.

A sharp pain shoots through my right side and I find myself unable to stand, collapsing forward onto the ground, barely able to prevent myself from falling directly on my face. The pain soon fades and is replaced with numbness, likely a side effect of the paralysis poison.

"What should we do with her?"

"Let's start by tying her up, she can't feel any pain if she's paralyzed." That was the one whose hand I had chopped off.

While I couldn't feel my injuries or look to see the wound, I could still smell blood, likely both mine and theirs.

Why am I so drowsy? Oh right, blood loss. Well, it's for the better, not like I could do anything about it. I doubt I could even talk if I wanted to.

One of them hoists me up and ties me with a rope, throwing me against a tree. Since I can't even keep my head up, one of the few things I can see is that my clothes are soaked in blood. If I wasn't paralyzed, I'd probably vomit.

Once they're sure I've been tightly tied to the tree, one of them forces me to drink something. After a few moments pain covers my entire body, mostly from my left arm and right side though. Especially the latter. I let out a silent yelp of pain.

"Aww look, she's in pain," the one who's hand had been cut off says in a psychotic, sadistic voice. He had bandaged up his arm rather quickly.

He walks up to me and kicks me in the stomach, causing me to gasp for breath and bend over in pain. Or, at least try to, since I couldn't really move much. He kicks me several more times and one of his friends says, "Careful, if you kill her, you can't torture her."

The man smiled sadistically and held a dagger in his left hand. He put the point against my stomach and slowly stabbed me, causing me to scream out in pain. The taste of blood filled my mouth and the man laughed.

He yanked out the dagger sharply and raised it next to my head in a backhanded grip, readying to stab down on my shoulder. However, before he could, the dagger was sent flying out his hand by a familiar sword and he himself was sent backwards into the ground.

Kirito practically appeared between me and the 3 assassins.

He glanced back at me and an expression of cold anger appeared on his face as he turned to the Laughing Coffin members. Maybe, I'll survive...

The world fades to darkness.

* * *

"-ru! Karu! Wake up! Please, please wake up."

I drowsily open my eyes and with slight difficulty raise my head a bit. I see Kirito nearly crying above me and notice that for some odd reason, the pain was mostly gone. We were still in the forest however.

A moment after I open my eyes, Kirito hugs me and whispers, "Please, never do something that stupid again."

I hug him back—well try, anyway, since I can barely lift my arms—and say as loud as I can—which was basically a whisper—, "Thank you, Kirito."

I try to keep my eyes open and fail, though I feel a drop of liquid fall on my cheek as I fall asleep.

* * *

So huuunngry. And thirsty.

I open my eyes and see a familiar room, specifically, my bedroom. The light shone through the window and I sit up, rubbing my eyes. As I sit up, there's a pain in my stomach and side and I wince.

Upon looking around, I see Kirito is a light sleep on the chair on the room. "Morning Kirito," I say.

"Morning Karu," he says, sleepily raising his head.

He immediately blushes bright red and looks away. I look down and realize that I'm wearing nothing but my underwear and some bandages and instantly lie back down, hiding under my blanket while blushing furiously, hurting myself somewhat in the process.

"You-"

"Sorry, but it was that or let you sleep in clothes completely soaked through with your blood," Kirito hastily defends.

I resist the urge to throw something at him, since his reasoning was sound and I'd rather Kirito see me in underwear—as embarrassing as it was—then sleep in clothes completely soaked with blood for at least like 20 hours, possible something like 45 hours or whatever. Also if I threw something at him, I would probably hurt myself.

"Can you please step out so I can put on some clothes," I say quietly and as calmly as I could.

"Yeah, I'll just do that," he says carefully, seemingly relieved that I didn't do anything to him. He gets out of the room and I quickly get out of bed. I'm hit by a wave of nausea and pain and stumble slightly. No sudden movements, got it.

I relatively slowly get dressed and walk out of my room, swaying slightly.

"Are you alright?" Kirito asks, catching me as I stumble a bit.

"Yeah, just light headed, a bit nauseous, and sleepy," I say with a yawn.

He sighs with relief and says, "With how much blood you lost, that's not surprising."

"How long has it been?" I ask.

"It's the next morning," Kirito answers.

"I see. Thanks for saving me," I say.

"It's what best friends are for but, please never do anything like that again, I was so worried," he says.

"I won't," I say.

"Alright, now that that's-"

"Wait. How are my injuries healed so much in less than 24 hours?" I ask.

"Healing crystal," Kirito answers simply. Healing crystal? I thought those were just made up.

"Those exist?" I ask.

"Yes, but please still be careful, it may have closed your injuries but you could very easily still hurt yourself," Kirito says. They're undeniably rare then, but I decide not bring it up. It's probably best not to ask what happened to the Laughing Coffin members.

"So Karu, are you at all hungry?" he asks.

"Very," I say.

"I'm not surprised. Let's go get you something sweet to eat, after losing that much blood," Kirito says.

"Thanks." I yawn again.

"Maybe with some tea," Kirito adds.

"You're the best," I say and impulsively hug him. Maybe my brain wasn't operating at full capacity, because normally I wouldn't do something like that, or maybe it was that he had just saved my life.

Kirito blushes slightly and I let go of him. "I wonder if this is what being drunk is like. If so, I'm never drinking enough to get drunk. Ever," I say in a half-joking voice. Kirito laughs, "Maybe you should get some sleep first."

"I'd never fall asleep, way too hungry," I answer.

"Right, with how you're acting, you'd probably fall asleep anyway and then be miserable when you wake up," Kirito says.

"Just so you know, the party is an assassination attempt," I say, remembering why I had needed saving in the first place.

"I guessed that much, you follow and councilor and run into Laughing Coffin. Just for the record, you should have run away instead of facing them," Kirito says.

"I know," I say, looking down.

"Why didn't you?" he asks.

"Because one of them could have been the person who killed my father," I say.

"And if one of them was?" Kirito asks.

I don't answer. I want to kill him, but could I?

"I don't know," I say. I can't help but yawn, instantly lightening the mood.

"Anyway, back to you being hungry, I bought some sweets while you were asleep, since after you lose a lot of blood you're supposed to drink a lot and eat a lot of sugar," Kirito says.

We sit and eat for a little while when I decide to ask, "Hey Kirito, how did you know to look for me and how did you find me?"

"I just had a bad feeling so I went looking for you and I found you by asking the animals in the forest," he says as if it's nothing, probably to avoid me realizing and asking questions without lying.

"You can talk to animals?" I ask. If he said yes, I would believe him, since I can too.

"You don't believe me, do you?" he asks.

"I believe you, I can too so it's not that surprising," I say. It wasn't that I made animal-like sounds and animals understood me, I just spoke normally and somehow they understood me and I could understand them without really parsing what sounds they were making.

"Oh..." he says after a little while.

I get up to go open the window and wince as pain shoots through my stomach and side. Kirito gets up and catches me. "Be careful."

"Sorry, I forgot," I say, letting him sit me down.

"What did were you getting up for?" Kirito asks.

"I just wanted to open the window." Kirito walks to the window and opens it, allowing the chirping of birds to be heard. A small, blue baby bird falls on the window sill and cries out a bit. However my ability to communicate with animals worked, it didn't work when it wasn't trying to communicate with me.

"Hey little fellow, are you alright? Did you fall from your nest?" Kirito says to the bird, stroking the bird's head with his finger.

'Yes,' it chirps. I guess it works when it's trying to talk to Kirito. Kirito gently picks the bird up in his left hand and climbs on the window sill, standing up so he was mostly outside and handing on with his right hand. He reaches up and presumably puts the baby bird back into to its nest. He climbs back inside and drops off the window sill.

"I swear you're doing that just to make the fact the I'm injured bother me," I mutter.

"What?" Kirito asks, seemingly genuinely not hearing me. "Nothing, nothing."

I finish eating and say, "Let's head to the castle, since I'm not going to be doing any smithing, there's really nothing to do here.

"Are you sure? It's pretty far and uphill," Kirito says.

"Okay. I get you're worried, but it's not that far or much higher, I won't drop dead randomly," I say, slowly getting up.

"Something like that is exactly what I'm worried about..." Kirito says very quietly. Whether he intended for me to hear him, I don't know..

We walk outside and walk towards the castle at a relatively slow rate, with me occasionally leaning on Kirito for support.

"I still think you should have just stayed home until you recovered at least a little more," Kirito says quietly.

"I would die of boredom," I answer.

"People are normally confined to bed for a while after losing that much blood," Kirito says.

"Then remind me never to get seriously injured again," I say.

"I would have done that anyway."

"Can we go faster?" I ask.

"Can _you_ go faster?" Kirito asks.

"Probably."

"Move carefully though, you don't want to hurt yourself," Kirito says in a worried voice.

* * *

"Prince! Where have you been, you didn't return to the castle all night!" asks the silver-haired guard captain.

I give Kirito a 'seriously?' look.

"I wasn't going to leave my nearly dead, unconscious friend alone," he defends himself quietly, not wanting to explain to the guard captain.

I silently sigh and say, "Kazuto was helping me with something and by the time we realized how late it was, it was already too late for him to go back so he just stayed at my place."

The guard looks at me skeptically. Thankfully she decides to let it slide. I better make sure not to look injured until we leave her sight because otherwise she'll be _very_ suspicious.

Which was a bit of a problem, since I kinda felt like collapsing on the floor, or at least leaning on something.

"Let's go to the library," I say quietly to Kirito.

Kirito nods and we head to the library, though the moment we get inside and out of the courtyard where the guard captain was I lean on the wall and breathe deeply.

"Are you okay? I can carry you if you want," Kirito offers.

My face heats up and I look away. "I'm fine," I mutter.

"You sure?" Kirito asks.

"Yes, besides, Suguha will never stop teasing us if she sees that," I say. Kirito decides to let me be and we head to the library... which was unfortunately 7 floors up.

* * *

"Kirito, wait up!" I say as Kirito starts to run up the stairs.

"Sorry, I'm used to always running up stairs for some reason," he says as he runs back down to where I am.

"You sure you don't want me to carry you?" Kirito asks.

"How about I just lean on you a bit instead," I say, somewhat embraced by the difficulty I was having with simply climbing stairs. F***ing _stairs_. It's not like some mountain or something.

I lean on Kirito as we climb the 7 floors to get the floor the library is on—why does the castle need to be so damn big?—and as we enter leave the stairwell we run into Suguha, or really, Suguha literally runs into me.

I clench my teeth to avoid screaming and wince in pain as I hit the ground. "Damn it, watch where you're going!" I say rather too angrily as Kirito helps me up.

"Sorry. Are you alright?" Suguha asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lie, trying to not show any pain or that I'm injured because explaining it would be a pain.

"Really...?" she asks skeptically.

"Yes, really," I say.

"Then why were you leaning on Kazuto?" she asks suspiciously. So she saw that before she ran straight into me.

"I wasn't leaning on him, I was... uh... hugging him," I say, not really hoping for it to work. Kirito just gives me a 'really?' look and sighs.

"I might have believed you if you didn't literally say 'uh' in the middle," Suguha says. "Besides, given how you moved in your duel with Kazuto a little while back, you shouldn't even have fallen over from me running into you and you wouldn't have been hurt by it or landed so poorly either."

"Caught redhanded," I say.

"Then explain how are you hurt and how did you get hurt?" she asks.

"Don't really wanna," I say.

"I'll tell the guard captain, I'm sure she'd love to know how you got injured and how Kazuto was involved," she says.

I sigh. "Kirito, can you take us somewhere where nobody will hear us?"

"Sure," Kirito says and leads us somewhere, not a secret passage, simply a storehouse.

"Nobody should go here and it's not like it's the end of the world if somebody else hears this, it will just mean we have some explaining to do to father," Kirito says.

"Alright, where should I start?" I ask.

"How did you get- no, how did you get into the situation where you got injured?" she asks.

"Two days ago Kirito mentioned how his 16th party would include a ball where anyone was invited and thus, able to get close to the prince. I pointed out this sounded awfully like some sort of assassination attempt and that one of the councilors must want Kirito dead. Yesterday I was following a suspicious councilor and followed him into the forest, where he met with Laughing Coffin.

For some stupid reason I didn't run away and instead fought them, in the beginning of the fight I injured one and stupidly forgot about him, then he snuck up on me and paralyzed me by stabbing me. Then one who's hand I cut off stabbed me. Then Kirito showed up and I don't really know what happened from there."

"If that was yesterday, how are you walking?" she asks.

"I dunno, ask Kirito," I say.

"Why do you call Kazuto Kirito?" she asks.

"Because I'd rather people not realize I'm the prince when we're talking outside the castle and she decided to just call me Kirito all the time to simplify things," Kirito says.

"Annnnyway, back to how she's walking—even if it's with difficulty—if she got stabbed multiple times yesterday," Suguha says.

I started feeling rather sleepy—likely a result of blood loss—and sat down in the corner of the store room, careful as to not hurt myself. I close my eyes and almost immediately fell asleep.

* * *

"Karu, wake up," Kirito says, poking me in the shoulder.

"Morning," I mutter, opening my eyes sleepily.

"It's not morning, it's the middle of the day," Kirito says.

"Whatever," I say.

"Why are you so sleepy? Weren't you asleep for like 20 hours?" Suguha asks.

"Ever heard of blood loss? It makes you sleepy, nauseous, and easily out of breath. Fun fact, being stabbed a lot causes you to lose a lot of blood," I say in a sleepy voice.

"Uh... sorry, that was dumb of me," she says, somewhat embarrassed.

"Sugu, stop bothering Karu," Kirito tells the 'younger' girl who was still a year older than me, so it felt weird referring to her that way.

I—with some difficulty coming from being somewhat limited by the bandages I was wearing and the injuries under them—stand up.

"Are you alright?" Kirito asks as I wince from moving wrong.

"I'm fine, I understand that you're worried, but it's fine," I say.

"Yeah, sorry," Kirito says, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Get a room you two," Suguha teases, causing both to blush and look in any direction other than each other. Or more like _every_ direction other than each other.

"Get a conscious," I answer.

"Ouch," Suguha says.

"So anyway, Kirito and I were on our way to the library, so, bye bye," I say and head to the door.

* * *

 **Well, here's chapter two. Please leave a review and tell me what you thought.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay! A chapter 3! I did it, I made a story with more than two chapters, that means maybe this story will have an end! Or at least something other than a beginning.**

 **I mean other than Duo of Darkness. If you haven't noticed, there's the thing recently with my stories where I make two chapters and drop it. (Sword Art Online: Angel does actually have a chapter two, I just haven't quite finished it)**

 **I decided that I would be adding a few more countries to the world, but I'm still keeping the name because they are going to play rather minor roles.**

 **I realize that Karu's recovery is ridiculously fast, even if the wounds were closed by a healing crystal, maybe a reason will show up in the future or maybe it's just 'cause** **realism isn't everything in a fanfiction which is set in a very not real world.**

 **This chapter is 4 days later than it would otherwise have been for stupid camping trip reasons, not only did I not have access to computer or internet, I didn't even have a way to charge my phone so I couldn't even write on that. Okay, in all honesty, it's not like anyone cares since I have no semblance of a schedule anyway. Besides, the camping trip was kinda fun. I only hurt myself like 3 separate times, two of which were _extremely_ stupid. I managed to cut myself with a tree, for example. And I was so stupid I ran down a hill and landed on a rock wrong, thus hurting my ankle.**

 **After the camping trip, while waiting for my parents to pick me up from the house of the people who drove us there and back, while learning how to use a surf board with a sail, I managed to cut my foot. (I originally had a description, but decided that it was too much information and possibly stretched the 'T' rating of the story...**

 **Okay, I'll quit whining now, it was cool overall.**

 **My second problem is that I don't really feel like writing a story that** **chronologically makes any sense, I just have a few scenes in my head I want to write for pretty much all my stories, but I have no idea how to get there.**

 **Note made after the others: Just bought Elder Scrolls Online, so don't expect many updates in the near future.**

* * *

 **(1st person, Karu)**

"Hey Kirito," I say.

"Yeah?"

"I'm bored."

"What am I supposed to do about it?"

"Let's go ask your father- no, uncle, if he knows anything about why we're so similar."

"Why now?"

"Because I'm bored and still haven't recovered enough for you to let me really do anything," I say.

"Still..." Kirito says.

"Still what?" I ask.

"You know he might be busy," Kirito says, changing the topic.

"In that case we'll wait. That's what we're doing anyway," I say.

"Fine. You need help?" Kirito asks.

"Seriously, I understand you're just trying to be nice and you're worried, but I don't need you to help me get up every single time," I say. "Besides, I've almost recovered."

"Sorry, I'm just worried about my friend _who literally got_ _stabbed._ _**Twice**_." he says.

"Thats an exaggeration, I got stabbed once and cut on the side once," I say.

"Speaking of which, you never did tell me what happened between me passing out and me waking up. For example, how you got me into my house without attracting a lot of attention, since, you know, you'd be carrying an _unconscious girl covered in a **lot** of blood?_ " I ask.

"Um... your window was open," he answers.

"Seriously..."

Kirito gets up and—despite my insistence that it was unnecessary—helps me up. And by helps me up, I mean grabs my hand and pulls me up without any cooperation from me.

"Geez Kirito..." I mutter.

We walk through the city towards the castle, idly noting that the few people about the place were slowly forming into a crowd. Someone pushing through the now forming crowd runs into me and knocks me over, causing a not insignificant amount of pain. He notices he did and stops, asking, "Are you alright? I'm so sorry."

Before Kirito can say something harsh to him—probably coming from his current over-protectiveness—, I say, "I'm alright."

Kirito pulls me up—this time with my cooperation—and shoots a glare at the man who apologizes once more and continues pushing through the crowd.

"Hey Kirito, do you know what this crowd is about?" I ask, dusting myself off.

"I have an idea, but let's go see," Kirito says. Well, technically he answered my question.

We slowly push through the crowd until we can see—which requires us to be basically at the very front since we aren't very tall—and see a chestnut haired, beautiful girl wearing a dress surrounded by 4 bodyguards dressed in shining white armor with the golden crest of the kingdom of Oykot on their chests. The girl in the middle wore a red and white dress, along with a small crown-ish thing that had a silver disk at the front which also bore the crest of the kingdom.

"Thought so," Kirito says.

"Who's she?" I ask. She was obviously someone important from Oykot, but more specifically.

"She's the princess of Oykot. The royal family of Oykot was specifically invited to my birthday, so they sent her as a representative. Father told me she'd be coming," Kirito says.

"I see," I say.

"Let's go," Kirito says, pulling me through the crowd in the direction of the castle, somehow managing to move faster than the princess of Oykot.

"Her name's Asuna, by the way."

"I'll remember that. So where are we going?" I ask.

"We're- or I'm, going to welcome her, you can come with me or just wait," Kirito answers.

"Wow, you're almost acting like a prince," I tease.

"You're encouraging," Kirito says sarcastically.

As we reach the castle, Kirito and I walk inside, avoiding any attention because literally everyone except us, the princess, and her guards was focusing on the beautiful teen who was the princess of Oykot. This included the gate guards who probably didn't even notice us walking in.

"So how do you plan to welcome her?" I ask.

"Well, I'll walk out and say 'welcome to Aincrad,' then bow, obviously," Kirito says.

"She's already in Aincrad," I deadpan.

"Okay, 'welcome to the Ruby Palace of Aincrad,' then," Kirito says.

"I guess that's good enough. You're the prince, you decide," I say.

"If that's the case, why did you correct me the first time?" he asks.

"Dunno," I say.

"Sometimes you make no sense to me," Kirito mutters.

"I sometimes make no sense to myself as well," I answer.

As the princess approaches the gate, Kirito walks into the center of the road with me stopping next to him a little to the side.

"Welcome, Princess Asuna of Oykot, to the Ruby Palace of Aincrad," he says and bows. I bow as well and wince slightly as the mostly healed wounds in my stomach and side complain. Unfortunately, it doesn't escape Kirito's notice and he whispers, "Almost recovered, huh?"

I scowl slightly and whisper, "Shut up."

* * *

 **(Asuna)**

"Welcome, Princess Asuna of Oykot, to the Ruby Palace of Aincrad," spoke a black haired boy who had stepped into the middle of the road just inside the walls of the castle. I knew the place was called the 'Ruby Palace,' but I didn't expect the top of the castle to literally be made of ruby...

The boy bows, along with the girl who had walked out with him. The two looked like they were probably siblings, both wore almost all black, and both carried swords.

The girl seemed to wince ever so slightly as she bowed, which was followed by a short sentence from the boy, said too quietly to be heard. The girl scowls slightly and says something equally inaudible.

Who are they? They're not dressed in any sort of uniform, as it doesn't have the crest of Aincrad anywhere on it or anything of the like, yet they're allowed to carry swords within the palace. Well, I get the feeling I'll find out soon enough.

"Thank you," I say with a slight curtsey.

I continue walking forward and the boy speaks once more, "Please, visitors are not allowed weapons within the palace. Your weapons will be returned to you once you leave the castle."

My guards look at me, asking me what to do. "You may go explore the city," I say.

"Are you sure it's safe for you to be alone?" the leader of the guards asks quietly.

"You would be unarmed either way," I say.

"Alright, please be careful Princess," the guard says, reluctantly agreeing.

The four guards bow to me and leave.

I walk through the gate and the boy—still not introduced—says, "Please, follow us."

How were they so sure I didn't have any weapons? Either they didn't really care and it was formality—which was unlikely—or they were confident enough in however they checked.

I walk through the gate and follow them through the courtyard and into the castle. After taking a few turns the boy knocks on a door and someone dressed in what looked to be servant attire opened the door.

"Please take Princess Asuna to her room." Then, turning to me, he says, "Please follow her, she'll take you to your room. If you have any questions about where things are, feel free to ask her." With that the two turn to leave.

They still haven't introduced themselves.

"Excuse me," I say.

"Yes?" he asks.

"What are your names?" I ask.

"I'm Kazuto and this is Karu," he says, gesturing to the girl next to him.

Kazuto... isn't that the princes's name? He looks too young though, as the prince is supposed to be nearly 16 and these two both look around 14, so maybe it's just someone with the same name. Well, I'll meet the prince soon enough and then I'll find out if it is him.

* * *

 **(Karu)**

"Are you sure you're alright?" Kirito asks.

"Yes. I. Am. Sure," I say.

"Alright, alright," Kirito says.

"This is getting seriously old. Come on. If I wasn't okay, you'd be able to tell so when you know that there isn't anything actually wrong, quit asking," I say in a harsh, irritated tone.

"Sorry..." Kirito says with a somewhat hurt—though he was trying to hide it—expression.

Realizing how harsh I'd been about asking him to not constantly make sure I'm okay a add, "Sorry, I didn't mean to be so harsh."

"It's okay, you're probably right anyway," Kirito says.

"If I wasn't okay I wouldn't be able to hide it from you, even if I wanted to," I say with a smile.

"So what do you want to do?" I ask.

"If you think you're recovered enough, we can do some sword practice. Given that someones probably going to try to kill me at the party, it's quite likely you might end up in that kind of situation again, so you should be ready," Kirito says.

"We can do something light. The reason I lost was because I lost track of one I thought I had disabled though, so we can start with something light. What I really need is to practice fighting multiple opponents, since when I just train against you, I'm not getting any practice with that," I say.

"You have a point. Maybe we can get some of the guards training to help us out," Kirito says.

"Sure, but not for too long because I still get tired very quickly," I say.

"Yeah, that will take a while to fully recover from with how much blood you lost," Kirito says somewhat sadly.

"Maybe I'll just have to lean on you sometimes. You wouldn't mind, would you?" I tease.

Kirito does his best to ignore my teasing and says, "Do you want to go sit down?"

"I don't get tired _that_ quickly, I meant in the context of physical activity, not walking at a slow pace for a few minutes," I say.

"Heh heh, yeah..." Kirito says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"So anyway, let's get to training," I say.

* * *

"So... *pant* damn... *pant* tired... *pant*" I say between breaths as I lean over with my hands on my knees.

"Do you want some water or something?" Kirito asks.

"Sure," I say, having recovered my breath just a little.

I sit down against the wall of the arena and breathe deeply.

"Here you go," Kirito says, handing me a leather sack of water which was plugged with a crock.

"Thanks," I say, gulping it down rather quickly, even managing to spill some on myself, earning a slight laugh from Kirito.

"Better?" Kirito asks.

"Yeah, I think that's enough for today though. I'm tired, not just out of breath," I say.

"Okay. I'm surprised that took as long as it did, given that even I'm starting to get a little tired and I'm in great shape," Kirito says.

"Anyway, you did great," he says, handing me some sort of pastry.

"Wow. When'd you have time to get that?" I ask.

"A little while back, while you were practicing. If you're really focused on something, I can sneak past even you," he says.

"Oh. Well, thanks. Now that there's food right in front of me, I'm suddenly very hungry," I say, my stomach growling to prove my point. I feel my face heat up slightly and Kirito chuckles a bit.

I pout and Kirito says, "You act so adorable sometimes," while rustling my hair a bit.

"Now you're just treating me like a little kid," I say while blushing slightly at his comment.

"Sorry, I think the constant worrying about you is doing that," Kirito says, removing his hand from my head.

I sigh. It's not like I really mind, it's just... Just what? Embarrassing, I guess.

"Are you just gonna look at that food all day?" Kirito asks, moving the conversation away from its current path.

"Sorry. Thanks for the food," I say and bite the rather tasty pastry. I gotta say, if there's one upside—and it is just one... I guess being cared for a bunch and having an excuse not to do anything could be one, depending on who you are—to losing a bunch of blood, it's that I get to eat lots of sweets.

Kirito looks at me and smiles as I quickly eat the food.

* * *

 **(Asuna)**

"Shouldn't he be preparing or something?" I ask Suguha, the princess of Aincrad.

"Go ahead and try to get him to, the moment you look away, he'll be gone," she answers.

"And it annoys me how despite always preparing last minute, he still manages to be perfectly prepares anyway."

"How do they not get tired? This is like the 6th day in a row they've been at it."

"Beats me."

"Wasn't she supposed to have been seriously injured recently?"

"She was. That's exactly _why_ they are training so much, I think."

"That's very fast rec- Oh, where are they going?"

"Who knows," she answers.

"Trying to keep track of them is hopeless, all the servants supposed to 'look after' Kazuto consistently fail," she complains.

I'm envious. I'm lucky if I even get to leave the castle without getting in trouble afterwards.

"Sometimes I feel they're more like siblings than Kazuto and I am, definitely closer," she says with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Prince Kazuto of Aincrad is completely different from me, by my parents' standards, he'd definitely not pass as a prince.

 _Maybe I should just... not return home._ No no no, I can't do that. Besides, if I stay here, mother and father might think I was kidnapped or something and it might cause trouble between Aincrad and Oykot, which would be exactly opposite to the reason I came here.

"I'm going to try to follow them. You asking got me curious. Feel free to come with me, but we're probably going through the forest," Suguha says and descends the stairs to the arena.

Seriously? No wa- Actually, that does sound somewhat interesting.

"You say that they constantly slip away from anyone who tries to keep track of them though," I point out.

"Oh they'll probably slip away, but maybe not," she answers.

"Alright, I'll come with you," I say.

* * *

"How the hell do they keep this pace continuously, uphill, through a forest, while injured, without looking slightly tired!?" I ask, about ready to collapse.

"Because of that continuous training," Suguha says, less tired than me but also unable to keep up.

I start to speak but Suguha cuts me off, "We lost them."

"Huh!? When?" I ask, having recovered a bit.

"The moment we looked at each other to talk, probably," she answers.

"Well, we can trying heading str-"

"They probably knew we were following them the whole time, which means they wouldn't be heading in a straight line to their destination, let's just turn back," she says.

"Well, at least it was a good workout," I say.

"Must suck to be proper princess," Suguha says.

"Huh?" I ask. You're righter than you even realize.

"I mean, your physical shape is just terrible and you probably have to sit through some kind of boring manners classes all day. You haven't even been trained to use a sword at all," she says. You're more right than you think about that.

"You have?" I ask, latching onto the last part.

"Yes. While it's a far less practical style than what Kirito came up with for himself, and is teaching Karu, I'm one of the best at it. It's a tournament style designed to look very nice and be enjoyable to watch, but it's still much better than nothing," she answers.

"Alright, let's head back," I say.

* * *

 **(Karu)**

"I think we lost them," I say.

"I'm surprised how persistent they were. Asuna looked like she was about ready to collapse," Kirito replies.

"Anyway, let's head wherever it is you have in mind so you can show me already," I say.

"Right, it's actually not far from here," Kirito says and leads me to a clearing on the very top of the large hill with a beautiful green, flowery meadow with an underground spring coming up in the middle out of a rock formation, forming a natural fountain.

"Wow, this place is beautiful," I mutter, feeling the sudden urge to just roll in the soft, green grass a bit.

"I know, right," Kirito says.

I jump on Kirito, surprising us and causing us both to fall to the ground. We roll over each other, both trying to end on top, and eventually come to a stop with Kirito on top of me.

Kirito falls off of me to the side and lies on his back, both of us laughing without restraint.

Eventually we get up and I ask, "So what was it you wanted to show me? Though I guess it wouldn't be surprising if this was it."

"Right," Kirito says and takes a few steps away from me, drawing his sword.

He holds to the side in position for a horizontal swing from left to right.

His sword glows bright, beautiful blue and flashes from left to right in a clean, perfect swing, leaving behind a trail of blue behind it. A sword skill. Used by only very few master swordsmen who've spent long perfecting their swordsmanship.

"Wow," I say slowly.

"You try it."

"Eh!?" I ask surprised.

"Here, I'll help you. Draw your sword," Kirito says.

I draw my sword.

"Now get in as close to the exact same position as I was in as you can."

I do as told and rather unsurprisingly, nothing happens.

Kirito walks behind me and grabs my hand, moving it a little.

The sword starts to glow blue and seemingly move on it's own. Surprised I stop the sword and the light vanishes.

"Don't fight it, go with it. Try again," Kirito says, stepping back.

I put the sword in the same position and the sword glows blue once more, this time I follow the sword and execute a similar swing to the one Kirito just showed, but it was slower and less clean and the light not as brilliant and beautiful.

"Nice! I'll show you some more in a bit, but practice that first," Kirito says.

"Okay."

* * *

"This gets tiring very quickly," I say, lying on my back in the grass, resting, after less than an hour of practice.

"Yeah. If you look at how quickly and powerfully the sword moves though, it's not that surprising," Kirito says, sitting next to me.

* * *

 **Sorry for the abrupt ending, but I felt the sudden urge to write something else _yet again_ , and decided that it would be better to post something abruptly cut off than wait an extra however long it takes.**

 **Please review and tell me what you think, useful criticism or just compliments (insults are technically criticism) to make me feel less like some sort of closet dweller anime fan (just kidding, I don't feel like that at all, I have plenty of things I do aside from anime, mostly programming and video games... plenty... yeah, I basically never leave my computer)**


	4. Chapter 4

**I just finished watching ALL of RWBY in like one sitting. Okay, multiple sittings because I had to eat and sleep but aside from those I was watching it almost continuously. The animation is pretty terrible but it gets better in the later volumes and you get used to it. I really like the intro songs from the first two seasons, not sure why though.**

 **Update: Since I wrote the third segment of this chapter, I've written at least 30-40k random RWBY junk, a bunch of which is unposted. So... I barely remember where I was going for this. However, the need for straight pairings (not that I have anything against LGBT people, just writing it is somewhat awkward for me)(or actually pairings in general) has brought me back to writing this. No, I'm serious, that's literally why I decided to keep writing this. Doesn't need to be romantic even, just close. I've also read easily more RWBY fanfiction than I have SAO... and I've read a lot of SAO fanfiction. On top of that I decided to re-read one of my favorite ever fanfics which I almost preferred over the original, _Return of Lost Souls_ by _StarlightAT_ and as good as it is, it is also really long, 243k words. It's a fanfic for Mondaiji-Tachi (everyone should at least watch the anime, and then read the light novels if they have time. The anime is sadly only 10 episodes, but I've watched it at least 5 or so times (the most I've watched any other anime is 2 times and that's basically SAO, Log Horizon, and a few others, but those are both like 50 episodes as opposed to 10)).**

 **Anyway! Back to the point. What effect all this will have on this story.**

 **First, I don't write the same way anymore and I haven't written these characters in ages, so the characters are gonna be really OOC form how they were before most likely. I also write 3rd person more, so this story might switch to that.**

 **Second, I may have 'a few' references to RWBY, or possibly even just bring in some of the characters for side roles. Like one or two appearances or something. Don't worry, nothing like a crossover or anything, just meet them in the woods once or twice, something like that.**

 **RWBY/SAO crossover will probably happen at some point though.**

 **After reading the other three chapters (okay, I admit I gave up halfway through the 3rd) I realize how terrible my writing is... Meh, still better than most. I also realize I done goofed. I basically said that Asuna bought Karu's previous best weapon in the first chapter, and then I went and made it so Asuna is a princess and not the sub-leader of the KOB. Well, at least I didn't use her name so the sub-leader of the KOB can be some _other_ rapier wielding woman. Yeah, that works. Totally. Not a copout method at all.**

* * *

 **(1st person, Karu)**

"The rest of the guests for 'your' party are starting to arrive," I say, looking out the open window into the gate courtyard where some people had been arriving. This time it seemed to be a few fairies from Alfheim.

"Which sadly means it will be soon," he reply.

"And probably an assassination attempt, if they're crazy enough to try after being caught," I say.

"True, but that's easier to deal with than a giant party where I'll probably have to interact with hundreds of nobles from all around the world," Kirito says.

"There are normal people. And then there are people like you who would rather deal with someone trying to kill them than talk to people for a few hours a day for a few days," I say with a laugh.

"And as a prince, you should probably be more willing to deal with people trying to talk to you than people trying to kill you, though both are probably useful," I add.

"I know I know, I'll deal with them."

"Well, you don't have much choice, so yes, you will."

"Sometimes you're brutal," he mutters.

"Not as brutal as your sword training," I answer jokingly.

"At least you enjoy that!" he protests.

"Good point but, you still need to do this," I say.

"Yeah," he says with a sigh.

"I hope some Leprechauns show up. Maybe I could talk about smithing with some of them," I say, remembering that Leprechauns—one of the 9 types of fairy—had a great of affinity for smithing.

"I'm suddenly very sleepy," I say matter-of-factly, suddenly feeling very sleepy.

"That's why you shouldn't stay up that late," Kirito answers coldly.

"I... know..." I say quietly and slowly, starting to suddenly fall asleep where I was, leaning on the windowsill.

"Are you alright?" Kirito asks. He catches me and moves me to the bed in the room, which was his since it was his room. If I wasn't basically asleep, I'd probably care.

"Just feeling really sleepy all of a sudden," I say, barely able to keep my eyes open. Why am I so sleepy suddenly...?

* * *

 **(Kirito)**

Why did Karu suddenly fall asleep. On top of that, I'm also feeling kind of sleepy. Poison? If so probably gas. I walk over to the window and stick my head out. If it's poison than whoever administered it will probably show up soon because just having us fall asleep and leaving us would be pointless.

The drowsiness fades and I walk to the door, standing next to it. A few moments later, the door opens. The man who walks in is wearing servants attire but he has a dark grin on his face. He sees me and in surprise mutters, "How?"

Then he sees the open window and says, "Damn it," drawing a dagger and jumping me, allowing a Laughing Coffin tattoo to be briefly visible.

I step to the side and draw my sword, bringing it down on the dagger and knocking it out of his hand, then kick him in the side of the head, bringing him crashing down onto the floor. A few seconds later a guard rushes in and asks, "What's going on!?"

"Can you arrest this guy," I say and the guard grabs and unconscious man, dragging him away.

I close the door and walk over to my bed, sitting down next to the still unconscious—sleeping?—Karu.

I grab her wrist and make sure that her heart rate isn't unusually slow. You better be alright.

Well the sleep will probably be good for her, since she hasn't been getting enough sleep recently, especially today. She looks so peaceful and cute when she's asleep... I wonder how long she'll sleep for. She didn't get enough sleep, so even once the effects of the poison wear off—if they haven't already—, she'll probably still sleep for at least a few hours, so just sitting here all that time would be boring, not to mention really creepy. 'I'm gonna watch you sleep for several hours.'

I hug her gently so as not to wake her up and grab a book to read.

Karu curls up into a ball next to me for warmth and puts her head on my lap. Since she was on top of the blanket, it was relatively cold, and she was asleep it made sense and it was also adorable.

I idly stroke her hair as I read.

* * *

 **(Karu)**

I slowly sit up and rub my eyes.

"Hey. You're finally awake," Kirito says from next to me... wait... I was lying on top of him. Oh well, whatever.

"Hey Kirito," I say.

"You alright?" he asks.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I ask.

"Um... Well the reason you fell asleep is because some Laughing Coffin member tried to poison us and I was worried that it wasn't just sleep poison," Kirito says.

"Well, I feel fine. Actually, I feel much better than before I fell asleep," I say.

"Not surprising, given that you just slept a bunch after not sleeping enough," Kirito says.

"How long was I asleep?" I ask.

"A few hours," he answers.

"Oh, sorry," I say.

"It's fine. You probably needed it anyway."

"Thanks for not waking me up, I guess," I say.

"I just read while you slept," he says.

"How did 'this' happen?" I ask.

"You mean how you ended up with your head on my lap? I dunno, I guess you just got cold," he says.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you moved like that yourself after I sat down next to you," he says. Oh. I feel my face heat up and look away and he chuckles.

"You look so cute while you're asleep," he says. Annnnnd now it's his turn to blush. Well mine too. He's probably thinking something along the lines of, _'Why did I just say that?'_ I'm just really glad Suguha didn't hear what was just said or else the teasing would never end.

You know what, I wanna see how he reacts to me saying this, so I will, "You mean I'm normally not cute?"

"That's not what I mean- Why would you even as- I meant the 'little kid' kind of cute- what am I even saying? There's no correct answer to that question is there?" he sputters out.

I burst out laughing. "If there is, I don't know it."

After a few seconds he says, "If I had just said adorable or something instead it would be so much less embarrassing... can we just forget I said that?"

"Not really and okay." Like I'll forget anytime soon. And he won't either, so it's really 'not mention it again.' Actually I think that's what it normally means. You know, I don't really care.

"So what were we doing before I fell asleep? I forgot," I ask.

"Being annoyed by the arriving nobility," he answers.

"Oh, well I'm sure you probably have some prince stuff to do and I haven't made anything for like 2 weeks," I say.

"See you soon," Kirito says.

I nod.

* * *

 **(Several month long IRL timeskip)**

If I just stand quietly in a corner, nobody will pay attention to me, right?

"Hey Karu."

"Hey Asuna," I reply.

"Are you alright?" she asks.

"Just don't really like crowds. Or people. Or dancing. Or noise. Or- You get the idea," I say.

"There's gotta be someone you'd enjoy talking to. You can't be the only smith here for example," Asuna suggests.

"Since most of the people here are nobility, it's possible I am. Anyway, why aren't you dancing with someone or something?" I ask.

"I just was, but all this formality can be a little too much," she answers.

"Why aren't you with Kazuto?"

"Because he has prince things to do," I say, pushing off of the wall I was leaning on and stretching.

"I'm gonna go outside. I'll be back soon," I say. And by go outside, I meant go looking for someone who looks like part of Laughing Coffin. And go outside away from the noise, but that was really just a bonus.

We had told the guards about it, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be on the lookout. After all, while in fighting the guards are perfectly fine, they aren't the best at catching people who can hide themselves well. That's basically just me and Kirito.

As I exit through a small side door onto the wall, I feel some water on my head. When did it start raining?

I like the rain though. And overcast weather.

Anyway. Focus.

I look around, inside and outside the walls. Pacing along.

I wish I was wearing a cloak right now. Totally to not get soaked. Nothing to do with wanting to look cool. Nothing at all. _At_. _All_.

I can hear someone walk out of the door behind me and turn around. "Hey Kirito, you managed to get away."

"Yeah. See anything?"

"Nope. Aside from the nice view," I say.

"Here," he says, tossing me a black cloak.

"When did you even have time to get that? Or know it was raining?" I ask, putting it on.

"I have my ways..." he says in the most mysterious voice he could.

"Is it called 'actually using the servants who are supposed to do whatever you say?'" I ask.

"Uh... yeah," he says and I laugh slightly.

"This view is nice. The rain and fog makes the forest even more beautiful," Kirito says.

"Yeah. Too bad we have an actual reason to be outside," I say.

"We spend too much time relaxing anyway," Kirito says.

"If you mean training to the point where I can hardly stand, then yes. It might be relaxing for _you_ but it certainly isn't for _me_. Not that I mind, thanks for training me," I say.

Kirito laughs. "Are you cold?"

"Why would I be?"

"Well you're soaked and inj-"

"For the last time, I'm perfectly fine!"

"You're not, but anyway, you're soaked and it's windy and cold."

"Actually, now that you mention it, I am a little cold," I say, my body emphasizing my point by choosing that moment to sneeze.

Kirito walks over to me till he was standing right behind me and throws his cloak and arms around me.

I feel my face heat up at the sudden contact, but it was warm.

"Better?" he asks in a slightly teasing voice.

"Yeah," I say. Of course we did have a reason for being outside and couldn't stand like that for very long.

"Thanks Kirito," I say as he lets go of me, resisting the urge to grab his hands and keep the warmth. What? I was cold. Not that I really noticed until he mentioned it.

Kirito however was already focusing elsewhere. He wasn't actually looking where he was focusing, but I could still tell where he was focusing.

Just past the tree line, in the shadows, was a small group of cloaked people. I avoided looking to directly at them so as not alert them of them being noticed.

"I'm cold again Kirito, let's go inside. You probably have things to do," I say. Realizing what I was doing Kirito just nods and we walk back into the palace, Kirito going to alert the guards of the group. I just stood in the corner, hiding my presence in the small shadow and hoping that the distracted party-goers wouldn't notice me.

And of course they didn't. For a while anyway. Eventually a fairy noticed me and walked over.

"Are you alright?" they ask. At least they were polite. And female, which means I wouldn't need to think of a way to turn down being asked for a dance or whatever.

"I'm alright," I say.

"You should enjoy yourself. You're at a grand birthday party of a prince!" the fairy says.

How do you politely tell someone to 'f*** off?'

"I don't really like noise," I say.

"Come on, you're young. You should be flirting with boys or dancing, not standing in a corner all alone. I'll show you," the woman says turning around, assuming I would follow her.

"I think I'm _too_ young for that," I mutter and silently slip outside before she realizes I'm not following her. Sure it was kinda rude, but it was the easiest way out of the situation.

And I was back outside. Where it was cold again. I didn't usually get so cold though... so why? Maybe I wasn't as fine as I kept telling Kirito I was. Or maybe I was just a little sick or something.

Still, outside is probably nicer than inside.

And somehow Kirito magically found out that I was outside again. Not that I minded.

"Are you alright? You're shivering," he asks. Really? The moment he points it out, I notice that I am in fact shivering.

"Huh. I guess I'm just a little sick or something. I feel pretty fine aside from that though. Just cold and—now that I think about it—a little like lying down," I say. Kirito puts a hand on my forehead and I flinch.

"Cold!" I exclaim and he pulls his hand back.

"Yep. You're definitely sick. And probably more than a little," he says.

"Well we can deal with it later. There are more important things," I say.

"True. Just be careful," he says.

"Says the person who someone is going to try to assassinate at some point within the next few days," I whisper to him.

"Let's hope it's soon because I have this feeling of impending doom," Kirito whispers back.

"'Someone's going to try to kill me soon. I wonder why I have this feeling of impending doom.' Geez Kirito," I mutter.

"I get it, I get it, I'll be careful. You be careful too. If they aren't interested in you specifically, they'll still probably be able to figure out that you're my friend," Kirito says.

Whatever Kirito was going to say however, was instantly thrown away as several people walked onto the walls from various entrances. Worthless guards.

All were armed. All had black cloaks. And all were Laughing Coffin.

"Well. Looks like your wish for it being soon came true," I say.

"First one of you to come near us dies," Kirito says. The way he said it wasn't like it was a threat. It was as if it was simply a fact.

We draw our swords and get ready to fight. Probably to the death.

The assassins seemed undeterred by the threat and advanced. The first one to reach us swung his sword at Kirito. I knock it away and Kirito runs him through. I look away, as much to avoid looking at the blood and murder as to switch to the next opponent.

Kirito had gone through with his threat. The other assassins were a bit more wary, realizing Kirito would be willing to kill.

The man who got stabbed lay on the ground, face first, in a steadily increasing pool of his own blood.

We were on a wall, which was to our advantage because it meant there were only two sides they could come from instead of all around us and we could escape by jumping off if absolutely needed.

We stood back to back, waiting for the assassins to make a move. We didn't have to wait long.

2 charged at us from each side, 4 in total. The problem was fighting back to back, is that we had nowhere to retreat really. There was swapping with each other, but we couldn't jump back for a break.

I parry the first slash and knock away the second with my left gauntlet I made. Well, it wasn't so much a gauntlet, since it didn't have a hand part, just covering most of the forearm and going over the back of the hand a bit. A bracer. That's the word... I think. The reason for making the bracers is because having something to block with on my left arm was useful and a shield was too heavy and inconvenient.

I swipe horizontally with my sword and the two jump back, avoiding the blow before charging forward again in order to catch me right after the swing.

However before they can reach me, I crouch down and pounce forward, jamming my left fist into the stomach of one and effectively using him as a meat shield from the next attack, which didn't come, meaning they weren't willing to kill each other just to get us. At least, not to get me.

I shove the man into his friend and then shove them off the wall.

"Kirito! Switch," I say and jump backwards, spinning round in mid-air to switch places with Kirito.

I block a blow that was originally meant for Kirito and positioned poorly to get me and stomp down on his sword, breaking it, before swinging my own sword at his side. He blocks the blow with the remnant of his sword, which breaks once more, leaving nothing but a handle. I duck down to block a horizontal swing from the other guy Kirito had been fighting and it passes over my head, hitting his teammate in the side and spraying blood on my face.

Doing my best to ignore the blood, I run my should into the uninjured ones gut, throwing him backwards and then kick him in the face, slamming his head against the rock wall with enough force to make him bleed.

Another two charge forward and I duck down under a sword swing, parrying a second, however a hidden dagger from the first guy runs along my left side. I wince in pain and jump back to where I was back to back with Kirito. The dagger didn't appear to poisoned, since I could still stand fine.

"You alright?" Kirito asks, somehow knowing without looking.

"Alright enough that you should focus on yourself," I answer, raising my sword in a two-handed grip. Huh... my sword feels heavier. Maybe it was poisoned, just with a weaker poison?

Not giving me much time to think, the two assassins run forward.

I run forward to meet them and swing my sword down diagonally from right.

The right one parries it and the left one—the one who grazed me—stabs forward with his sword. I shift to the right and the sword passes next to me. I put my left arm between the sword and my side to block the followup sideways slash. As the sword hits my bracer and bounces back, I swing my arm outwards, knocking the sword aside and then swing my own sword down, disarming the opponent.

He once more draws his extra dagger, this time in his right hand.

He lungs forward and I put him between myself and the other opponent, grabbing his wrist and twisting the dagger out of it. I shove him back into the other guy and while they recover pick up the dagger with my left hand.

I pull my arm back and throw the dagger at the closer of the two. It sticks into his stomach and he collapses backwards with a scream of pain. He tries to pull it out however soon goes limp. So it was poisoned.

My limbs and sword are starting to feel heavier. I normally don't get tired anywhere near this quick... so the poison? Must be it.

I block a blow from the other assassin and drop my sword into my other hand, slashing him from the left and taking him by surprise. The sword cuts across his stomach and he drops his sword, clutches his wound, and collapses forward.

I grab my sword with both hands and block an overhead blow from another Laughing Coffin members. Why did they have so many? Why were they willing to die on this stupid attempt to kill us?

* * *

I bite down a scream of pain as a dagger hits my left forearm just above my bracer, cutting quite deeply.

And now I can't feel my left arm.

Great.

Where the hell are the guards?

I run my sword through the guy who cut my arm, having given up on trying not to kill them. I can worry about that after I survive.

Which is becoming less and less probable with each one I fight. Kirito was still holding up fine, but _I_ was having some trouble. Each time I got hit, even slightly, I became weaker. On top of that, I was already bleeding a considerable amount. I guess I should just be glad the poison is paralysis, but at this point, normal poison of the same potency would probably be better. I'd have my full strength to fight and deal with it later.

One bonus of the poison on all their weapons was that it numbed away the pain from the injuries.

Some where in the middle of the fight, we remembered about sword skills... not that it really helps at the moment with how tiring it is to use them.

I kick the guy impaled on my sword off of it and spin around 360°, cutting into the side of another, clean through his crappy dagger.

I see Kirito's sword flash by me, knocking away a sword which nearly killed me.

The assassins retreat briefly. Whatever their reasons, it gave us—or rather, me—some much needed rest.

"Let's get to a wall so they can only attack from one side," Kirito says.

I nod. "You alright?" Kirito asks.

"Look at me? Do I look alright?" I ask.

"Point taken. Come on, let's get out of here. Let's hope we're the only ones they're after because otherwise there's going to be a room full of dead nobles," Kirito says.

"Let's jump over the group the way we came from originally. Can you manage?" Kirito asks.

"I'll manage," I say.

"Alright," Kirito says.

We run the way we came originally and leap over their heads with the use of a sword skill, surprising them. Once we were outside of the walls of people they set up around us, we turned to face them once more. Now it would 2 on 2-at-a-time-from-one-direction instead of 4-at-a-time-from-two-directions which would make it considerably easier.

Why wouldn't they just retreat already? They'd lost tens of people by now. Why wouldn't they just retreat already? Why were they that determined to kill us?

We get ready for more enemies to come, but they don't. Are they retreating? They were just standing there. Were they waiting for something?

The door behind us led to the ballroom, so if they had people in that direction, we might as well just run away entirely.

"Hello, Prince of Aincrad. Princess of the half-Alves," a man said as he walked from the assassins. He was obviously a member. His hood shadowed his face, however a grin could be seen on his face.

He held a massive cleaver-like weapon in his hand. It wasn't much longer than a long dagger, however it was incredibly wide, nearly half the length. It had a rod along the top from which the blade protruded and it had holes going through it near said rod.

I recognize that weapon. Where though? It seems familiar.

Wait. He said Prince of Aincrad. That makes sense, that's Kirito. But there's no princess here. Certainly not one of half-Alves. I didn't even know they existed. I mean he had to be referring to me, since there was nobody else, but I'm pretty sure I'm human.

Lastly, he looked dangerous. Extremely so.

"Who are you?" I say.

"You may know of me by the name PoH," he says with wicked grin. I level my sword. At this point, I had no reservations about killing him. The person I hate most. _Kill._

I try to run forward but Kirito catches me. "You can't beat him right now," he says.

"Let go of me," I say with a snarl.

"No," Kirito says calmly and pulls me back.

"Calm down," he says.

I breathe in slowly, briefly closing my eyes, trusting Kirito to warn me if he makes a move.

"I killed your parents. I killed your little clan. And now, there's just the two of you. The last with alf blood in your veins," he says, his grin growing. Clan? Alves? Weren't Alves extinct for thousands of years?

"Try not to die _too_ quickly. Make this entertaining for me," he says.

"Let's get out of here," Kirito says.

I nod my agreement. We didn't stand a chance in our current state, especially if he truly did do the things he claims.

"Do you think I'll let you leave?" he says, once more smirking.

"I was thinking something along the lines of 'you don't have much of a choice,'" Kirito says and slams open the door behind us, leading to the ballroom.

A glance inside tells me that Laughing Coffin hadn't been there.

"Everyone! Get out of here!" Kirito yells as we enter and close the door behind us, locking it. And when someone drenched head to toe in blood and holding a sword tells you to run, you generally obey.

Immediately panic ensues, everyone fleeing for the exits. Hopefully the guards can do their fucking jobs this time, because no way can we deal with PoH as well as protect the people here.

PoH's cleaver cuts through the door, followed by several more cuts and a kick, bringing it crashing down in pieces.

I swing my sword at him, but he knocks it away nearly effortlessly and swings at me, I jump back but- _too slow._

Kirito yanks me back by my cloak and the cleaver passes an inch from my throat.

Uses the forward momentum he gained from pulling me back to lung forward, he attempts to run the self-proclaimed Prince of Hell through. PoH dodges to the side and deflects the hit. He swings several times at Kirito, who practically dances around the blows, countering with a few of his own.

I wait till PoH's back is turned and lung toward. He spins around, blocking the blow and with my left hand—which I could move again, though I pretended otherwise—I punch him in the side, causing him to move towards Kirito, who didn't have his sword in the right place so he kicked at him, aiming for the chest.

PoH blocks with his cleavers flat side and slides back towards me. I lash out at his neck with my sword but he blocks it before kicking me back. I block the heavy kick with the flat of my sword, pressing my left palm against the other side of the blade.

As the kick lands, I feel pain shoot through my quite injured left arm and get pushed back a few steps, stumbling back a few more and bracing myself on my sword. Normally, putting the tip of a sword against a stone floor would be blasphemy, but right now the sword was already fairly damaged and I had more important things to worry about than my love of blades.

This fight continues some time, Kirito and I jumping in and attacking, generally failing to do any damage, then dodging around or blocking his counter attacks.

Guards rush into the room, along with Suguha, and—surprisingly—Asuna.

"Kazuto!" Suguha yells, running towards us.

""Stay back!"" Kirito and I both yell at her.

Asuna grabs her and the guards surround the three of us, slowly approaching PoH.

They charge at him and he dodges _all_ their attacks, but they continue attacking.

Kirito and I jump back to breathe a bit.

"Karu, take a break," Kirito says.

"I can still fight!" I protest.

He swings his hand at me and I raise my hand to block, moving pitifully slowly.

He pulls his hand away. "Really?" he asks.

I sigh.

"Just take a break, you're injured and have who knows how much paralysis poison in you right now," Kirito says.

Reluctantly I nod and step back. Kirito runs back towards the fight where PoH finally got bored and decapitated one of his attackers with a single strike, cutting clean through plate armor and spraying blood everywhere, much to the horror of Suguha and Asuna, who had yet to see bloody murder. I'd gotten somewhat desensitized by first seeing it while in the middle of a fight where I couldn't focus on that kind of stuff.

I sheathe my sword and try to walk but trip over my own feet and fall, barely avoiding falling on my face.

I push my self up slowly and into a sitting position.

Apparently me suddenly falling over was enough of a distraction from the bloody murder for Asuna and Suguha to come running over.

"Are you alright?!" Asuna asks.

"You're asking someone covered head to toe in blood and cuts if they're alright, really?" I ask.

"Does it hurt?"

"Once the paralysis—and thus numbing—poison they use wears off, I'll probably hurt everywhere. Right now, I can't feel my body, like, at all," I say. Struggling to my feet.

"You shouldn't stand up!"

"Don't really care," I say, swaying slightly and being caught by Suguha, who wasn't very good at hiding the fact that holding someone covered in blood was disgusting to her.

"It's fine, I can stand," I say. I could stand, but I couldn't _walk_ without falling. Well I could, it just took a lot of conscious effort.

Suddenly most of the doors into the room opened and Laughing Coffin members run in, surrounding us and the guards surrounding PoH.

Two of them didn't move with the others and instead approached me, stopping a little ways away. One wore a skull mask and had glowing red eyes and the other had a bag-like mask over his face with small holes for the eyes.

The former had an estoc and the latter had a dagger.

"Stay behind me," I say to Asuna and Suguha, drawing my sword.

"Are you kidding? No way!" Suguha says, drawing her own sword. Asuna obeyed, realizing she'd be more harm than good in a fight.

"Some tournament kid, an unarmed princess, and someone who can hardly stand? I was hoping for some fun," the bag-masked one says.

The poison was starting to wear off, which meant I was regaining some of my strength, though not all because I was missing a lot of blood—and more by the second—so I was still weak. There was also the fact that along with my strength, I was regaining feeling in my body, which meant _everything_ hurt. A lot.

Well, if he thinks I can barely stand anymore, I can use that. Just like how I was able to get a solid hit in on PoH by pretending my left arm was still limp.

"I call dibs on that one," the bag-masked one says, pointing to Suguha.

"Fine," the red-eyed one says.

"The rest of you, go help PoH, these two won't be a problem," the red-eyed one orders.

I drop into a deliberately clumsy stance.

* * *

I let out a scream as he presses his foot down on my stomach.

"What you gonna do now?" he asks tauntingly.

I don't respond. He raises his foot to stomp down again and I roll out of the way, grabbing a dagger I had picked up at some point or another out of my cloak and pretending to clutch a wound.

"That won't help you," he says with a grin, stomping down again. I let out a cry of pain because my plan required me to actually allow him to hit. I looked over and say Suguha doing _terrible_. Her opponent was simply playing with her.

I turn and look up at the skull-masked assassin and grin before jamming the dagger into the side of his leg. He lets out of scream of pain and jumps back, yanking it out and stumbling slightly as the paralysis poison on it weakened his leg. I clench my teeth to help ignore the pain and grab my sword off the ground, rolling to my feet.

Deciding that Suguha needed help more than this guy needed to be dealt with, I run towards her, ignoring the protests of my entire body, which was telling me to collapse on the ground and rest.

I swing my sword with all my might at the dagger wielder toying with Suguha, but he redirects it with his dagger so it barely hits him, cutting into his right arm at an angle.

The two regroup.

"Damn it, she was faking it," bag-mask says.

I look over to where Kirito is and see that instead of him and a bunch of guards vs PoH it was him against a bunch of Laughing Coffin.

Kirito briefly meets my eyes before activating a spinning sword skill, smashing through the weapons and bodies of his closest attacker, Suguha nearly gagging at the sight of blood spraying everywhere, including Kirito.

I charge towards the two obviously more important ones but they meld into the group and a few charge at me.

I eviscerate the first one to come in range and then impale the next one, ripping my sword out his side, ducking under a blow and jamming my fist into the chin of the attacker with the full force of my arm and legs.

Asuna and Suguha were both pale and Suguha stood next to Asuna, sword out, but trembling. Thankfully Laughing Coffin was far more interested in Kirito and I.

Kirito burst through the crowd, too many to attack without hitting each other so they were forced to spread out a bit, which let him force his way out and next to me.

After what seems like hours of endless slaughter, though it was probably at most a few minutes, all of Laughing Coffin was dead or retreated. PoH apparently having decided the casualties were too much for now.

As the adrenaline fades, I collapse and grit my teeth in pain. _Everything_ hurt. And it hurt a _fucking lot_.

"We need to get out of here," Kirito says, more to Suguha and Asuna who were basically petrified in the corner of the room.

Kirito picks me up in a piggyback and I hold onto him with all my strength, which was about nothing at this point.

Suguha and Asuna nod slowly and get up, following Kirito as he walks through the corridors, avoiding any Laughing Coffin. Pass by a window into the courtyard. Hundreds of bodies were strewn across the place. Burnt and cut. Noble, guard, and Laughing Coffin. The whole place burned.

The four of us looked on the scene in horror.

Kirito is the first to recover, ordering us to keep moving. Or rather Asuna and Suguha, since he was still carrying me.

"Don't you dare die," he says to me.

"Don't worry, I have no intentions of doing so," I say, struggling to stay away.

"Where are we going?" Asuna asks.

"There's a secret passage out of the castle, and on the path there is the medical storage," Kirito says.

Suguha confirms his words.

* * *

We finally made it out of the castle and out into the woods and to a small river. Kirito set me down and we finally had a moment to process what was going on.

At this point both Asuna and Suguha vomited from what they had witnessed. The slaughtered bodies and Kirito and I cutting down what could easily be hundreds of people. Also me and Kirito covered in blood.

 _I killed them. Even if they were murderers, they had lives. And I ended them._

"Don't worry about that right now. You have more important things to worry about, like surviving the wounds all over your body.

I nodded.

I was covered in wounds.

"First we need to clean off the blood all over you," Kirito says. Yeah... hard to see my wounds if my entire body is covered in blood.

I strip down to my underwear—with some help from Suguha since any movement caused a huge amount of pain—, any thoughts of embarrassment washed away by pain.

I simply get into the river, letting the current wash the blood off of me.

* * *

Kirito finished bandaging my wounds—since aside from me, he was apparently the only one who knew how—, making me wince as he tightened the last bandage.

"Rest now," Kirito says, throwing off his bloody cloak and putting it into the river, hooking it onto a rock and letting blood wash out of it.

"Asuna, can I have your cloak?" Kirito asks.

Asuna nods and throws it to him distractedly. She was probably still in shock from what happened. Not surprising.

Even Kirito probably too, putting aside everything else to focus on making sure we survive.

He wraps me in the cloak silently and makes me lie down.

Not that I minded, even sitting made me feel lightheaded.

"I'm going to go to town and get some clothes for Karu. Her clothes are basically shreds," he says, obviously not talking to me. I close my eyes and try to rest. The best thing I could do right now was recover as quickly as possible, at least to the point where I could walk.

* * *

 **Things finally happened! Hey, I didn't update for several months, but at least it is the longest chapter yet (by a good margin) and lots of stuff happened.**

 **Sorry for not updating so long, I hope to get the next chapter out fairly soon, but it may take forever and a half again.  
**

 **Please review and follow. It makes me really happy** **whenever someone reviews.**

 **Well anyway, bye.**


	5. Chapter 5

**So while I actually have some inspiration to write this, I'm going to try.**

 **The beginning of this chapter might be a little confusing, but it will make sense. Okay it's probably pretty obvious.**

* * *

 **(1st person, Karu)**

I was standing in a hall full of dead bodies. Everywhere. Wherever you look, hundreds of bodies. All killed with a sword.

In my hand I held a bloody sword and my clothes were soaked in blood.

The bodies start to stand up, injuries and all, slowly walking towards me.

"You killed us!" the all said.

"No! Get back!" I scream, swing my sword all around, however immediately after I hit them, they just get back up.

It seems to continue for eternity, cut one down, it just gets back up again.

Finally, one reaches me, grabbing my sword and ripping it from my tired hands.

"You killed us!"

I punch it back, but they get closer and closer, grabbing my arms and trying to rip me apart.

Daggers come down.

* * *

 **(Asuna)**

I open my eyes and adjust how I was sleeping _yet again_. Sleeping in the woods was so uncomfortable. On top of that the scenes from yesterday were giving me nightmares. Karu and Kazuto seemed rather unfazed but in Karu's case, she was probably too injured to care about the relatively minor discomfort of sleeping in the woods. It probably hurts to roll over. Or probably even lie perfectly still.

And she was fighting... with injuries like that. Well not right now, right now she was- is that sobbing?

I turn my head to look at the source and see Karu crying into Kazuto's shoulder near-silently. Nightmares? To the best of my knowledge, she was in no way prepared to kill someone, and she'd been forced to fight and kill who knows how many people.

And they'd already been soaked in blood by the time they told everyone to run, so they must have been fighting before that too.

I'm not going to bother them. I can't possibly understand her current state. Both physically and emotionally.

I turn away once more, however before I can even close my eyes I hear Kazuto yell, "Who's there!?" into the forest, both his and Karu's eyes locked onto one place. Kazuto had his sword drawn and ready and put himself between where he was looking and Karu.

A lone man around 40-50 years old walks out, on his back was a bow. Aren't bows generally frowned upon in Aincrad as 'dishonorable' weapons when used for anything aside from hunting? Does that mean he's a hunter?

"Who are you?" Kazuto asks, not lowering his guard.

"I'm just a hunter who lives down river from here. Though I'm surprised you spotted me, even the slyest animals tend to miss me," the hunter says.

"Why are you here?" Kazuto asks.

"I saw blood in the river and decided to come investigate the source," he answers.

Kazuto lowers his sword, but doesn't sheathe it.

"In that case, just leave us be and pretend you never saw us," Kazuto says.

"That sounds suspicious... Where exactly did that blood come from?" the hunter asks.

"There definitely isn't a deathly pale girl covered in bandages anywhere near here," Kazuto says sarcastically and raises his sword once more.

"Now leave," Kazuto says in a more serious and threatening tone.

"I can't just let you two wanted criminals-"

"Wanted? For what?" Kazuto asks.

"For killing the prince, you murderers!"

I blink. ""What?!"" Suguha and I say at the same time.

"You just walk up to the prince and accuse him of killing the prince..." Suguha says.

"The prince?" the hunter asks Suguha, then says, "Wait... I recognize you... you're the princess."

"Yes. I am. And those two who you accused of killing the prince are my brother—in other prince—and his best friend..." Suguha says.

"Why would you be out here in the woods?"

"Why would we be wanted? Obviously, everything is normal right now. Maybe _somehow_ related to the mass of injuries on a certain someone here," Kazuto says.

"Now as I said, leave and pretend you never saw us here," Kazuto says sternly.

The hunter reluctantly leaves, both Kazuto and Karu looking where he was for several minutes. Suguha mentioned some 'sensing' people thing.

Karu sways slightly and falls backwards, back into a lying position, a sleepy look on her face. Well, after the pain.

"You alright?" Kazuto asks, his tone far kinder.

Karu nods. "Just tired."

"Sleep a bit more, then we can figure out what to do next," he says.

She hugs him—or maybe just pulls him into whispering distance, or maybe both—and whispers something, followed by him reluctantly agreeing to whatever she asked.

I turn away from them and the fire and close my eyes, attempting to fall back asleep.

* * *

"Wake up," Kazuto says. Well, it wasn't really needed since I had already woken up. _Again_.

Karu was already sitting, dressed in presumably the clothes Kazuto got yesterday.

How she was upright was puzzling. Just moving should cause her immense amounts of pain. Did she heal ridiculously fast or did she just have a ridiculously high pain tolerance? Or was she just really good at pretending to be fine and actually in pain.

"You should lie down," Kazuto says to Karu.

"I'm fine," she says, though her voice alone was enough to say otherwise.

"If you're fine, you won't mind if I do _this_ ," Kazuto says and gently pushes her shoulder, causing her to let out a slight cry of pain and start to fall before he catches her. So it was pretending.

"You're not fine," Kazuto says.

"I can sit, besides, lying down here is hardly more comfortable," she says.

Kazuto sighs and says, "Fine." He sits down next to her so we all—Suguha had gotten up at some point—sat around the fire in a not-so-circle.

"First thing we need to discuss is what we're going to do now," Kazuto says.

"I'm also curious about something, but I doubt any of us have the answer," Karu says.

"What?" I ask.

"Why PoH called me a princess of the half-Alves. Would be nice if we knew where the king was, he might know," Karu answers.

Princess? Karu's a princess? And... "Aren't Alves extinct?" I ask.

"That's what we thought too, but apparently half-Alves aren't... or rather, I'm the last one. No wait, he mentioned Kirito also having Alf blood. If PoH is to be believed, that is," Karu answers.

Wait, ask the king.

"I just remembered something," I say, remembering about a letter given to me by the king for the two of them with instructions to 'if possible without putting yourself at major risk, destroy it rather than allowing anyone else to read it.'

I take the letter out of a pocket and hand it to Kazuto.

"What's this?"

"From the king. To you two. With instructions to not let _anyone_ else read it. I forgot about it with all that's happened, but this reminded me," I say.

Kazuto takes out a small knife I didn't even know he had and cuts open the envelope, shifting closer to Karu so the two of them could read it.

After they finish reading it, Kazuto throws it into the campfire, along with the envelope.

"Right... well, according to this letter, Karu is in fact the princess of the half-Alves, though that doesn't mean much given that she's the last half-Alf. Surprisingly—or maybe not—we're not related in any way and our appearance is pure chance. My mother was apparently a friend of Karu's mother and also a half-Alf while my father was a human... he could have told us sooner," Kazuto says, summarizing the letter.

"Also that I'm likely capable of using fairy magic," Karu adds.

"Don't fairies normally have long-pointy ears or something?" Suguha asks.

"First, half-fairy, and second..." she says, trailing off before raising her hand and muttering something.

Alf-tounge runes surround her as she casts a fairy spell, presumably one written in the letter.

When she finishes, a silver light covers her and once it fades, she looks a little different.

First, her ears were slightly longer and pointer, somewhere between that of a fairy and a human.

Her hair was longer—going down to around the middle of her back at the very back instead of not quite reaching her shoulders—as well as smoother, straighter, and almost shiny, as well as much darker.

Her face was slightly less childish and round.

Her skin was paler and smoother.

And the least human-looking feature was her eyes, which had gone from a color similar to Kazuto's to a silver color.

All in all, she'd become more... perfect? In appearance that is.

No wings though.

Wow. And she'd gone from cute and pretty to cute and extremely beautiful and less tomboyish—in features, not in chest size—than before.

"Apparently this is what I actually look like and I was previously under a spell which basically 'makes you look completely human,'" she says.

Kazuto wasn't surprised because he'd read the same letter and had the same information, but Suguha was. And so was I.

Well, Kazuto was too, just not as much and was better at not showing it.

Karu draws her sword and tries to use it like a mirror, but finds it too damaged.

"Kirito, can I borrow your sword for a moment?" she asks. Shouldn't his be in just as bad a state?

Kazuto nods and gives her his sword, which was in—surprisingly—a much better state.

She looks at her reflection and her jaw drops. "Wha... wha...?"

"Now you don't really look like me," Kazuto says.

She hands him back his sword after a few moments and once more holds out her hand and chants. Once the spell casts, she is once more shrouded in silver and once it vanishes, she was back to her original appearance. Or disguise, whatever.

"Now that that's out of the way, we need to figure out what we're going to do next. If what that hunter said is anything to go by, whoever is in power now is with Laughing Coffin and they made Karu and I—presumably you two would be recognized or perhaps because they're only interested in the two of us for some reason—wanted for killing, well, me. That means our ability to go into cities and major towns will be reduced even further than it already was simply because Laughing Coffin was looking for us," Kazuto says.

"I think we should sneak over to my shop and get some supplies. I live there, so there's food and whatever. Plus we can get weapons for Suguha and Asuna. Just having them is useful, even if you can't properly use them. My shop is very close to the forest—right next to it—so we should be able to get there without being caught," Karu says, her voice still meek.

"The sooner we move, the better," she adds.

"For now, we should head towards Oykot. If we can get there, we'll be safe, at least temporarily," I suggest.

""That sounds reasonable,"" Suguha and Kazuto agree.

"When do we start moving?" Karu asks.

"Once I can catch something to eat, at least for you. You're in no condition to be going anywhere, or even being upright if we had the choice," Kazuto says.

Karu sighs and lies down, wincing all the way.

"Suguha and Asuna, watch while I go hunt something. Karu, don't go anywhere unless _absolutely_ necessary and save your energy. Ideally sleep," Kazuto says.

""Alright,"" Suguha and I say. Karu reluctantly nods and closes her eyes and almost immediately falls asleep.

I'd be envious if not for that the rest of her situation was absolutely miserable and she was obviously having nightmares.

I walk over to her and sit down next to her, gently grabbing her hand, moving her arm minimally and not touching any of her many wounds.

It didn't help much. If her nightmares are what I think they are then... "You had to. And you saved me, and you saved Suguha," I whisper to her.

It didn't help much, but it did help a little.

I held her hand a looked around. Looking at her asleep like this, so hurt and helpless, reminded me that she was still just 14. 3 years younger than me. And yet she was the one protecting me. Protecting Suguha too.

I want to hug her, but that will just hurt her.

Since she lost so much blood, she must be thirsty. If only we had some vessel I could use to fetch and boil some water. As is, the best way we have to move water would be to soak a rag in it and then squeeze it out. Which I might do once she wakes up. But I can't boil that.

She coughs, a bit of blood coming out of her mouth and I put a hand on her forehead and find it way hotter than it should be. I use my sleeve the wipe the small amount of blood off her face.

"Suguha, I think Karu's sick," I say.

"Anything major?" Suguha asks.

"Not really, just a fever I think, but given her injuries it might be a problem, or negligible," I answer.

"I am fine." I looked down to see her awake.

"Your voice alone says otherwise," I say.

"I _will be_ fine," she says before coughing once more, this time into her arm, adding a little extra blood to her bandages.

"Does anything hurt?" I ask, realizing a moment later it was a stupid question.

" _Everything_ hurts," she says.

"Do you need anything?" I ask.

Instead of answering however, she just says, "Someone's coming."

How did she know? "Take my sword, you might not know how to use it but it would be better than nothing," Karu says and—with some difficulty—gives me her sword.

Soon, a man enters the clearing. He was wearing a black robe and there was a Laughing Coffin tattoo on his left wrist.

"Ooo hoo hoo, this is goooood. And the strong one is gone... I'm going to get promoted for this, that's for sure," he says and then laughs psychotically, causing shivers to run down my spine.

He draws a long, serrated, single edges dagger and jumps towards me. I raise the sword Karu had given me to block, but the next two strikes easily disarm me as I fail to keep a grip on the sword and he kicks me in the chest.

I let out a cry of pain and stumble backwards, tripping and falling.

He moves towards me but is forced to jump back as Suguha swings her sword over my head. They fight for a short while until the dagger-user disarms her and knocks her out with a blow to the head.

"Now... what will I do with you three?" he says, thinking aloud.

"You caused a lot of trouble for us... let's have some fun, shall we?" he says, standing over Karu.

He stabs his dagger towards her left hand, which she moves out of the way, causing the dagger to plunge deep into the soft dirt.

"Ooo hoo hoo, resistance is futile," he says and stomps on her shoulder.

She lets out a short scream before just clenching her teeth. Tears formed in her eyes as he lifted his foot and stomped on her shoulder, several times.

He stomps towards her face but she shifts her head, causing him to miss.

He puts his foot on her stomach and presses down as she struggles against, pushing it up with her left hand. Since her first scream, she'd somehow managed to not make a sound. Why isn't she using her right hand?

I get to my feet and run at him, but he throws a small dagger at me. I block it with my arm to avoid being hit in the face and my muscles immediately protest, causing me to collapse, paralyzed.

"Now, where were we?" he asks, turning back to Karu.

Her right arm moves with a speed far greater than someone as injured as her should be able to and stabs a knife into the mans leg, causing him to jump back and clutch his leg in pain. "You bitch!"

She stands up unsteadily and runs forward with surprising speed, knocking into him and stabbing him in the stomach. He collapses thanks to his injured leg and the impact and Karu falls on top of him and after a moment of hesitation, stabs him in the throat.

She rips off a piece of his clothes and searches through his jacket to find something, putting it in her pocket, then struggles to her feet and walks over to me, taking the dagger out of my arm and tying the cloth around the wound.

She takes whatever it was she had taken off of him out of her pocket and I can see that its a little vial of something.

"What is that?" Suguha asks, who'd woken up.

"The sick bastards like torturing people, so they always carry an antidote because the paralysis also numbs away all pain," she answers before opening the vial and sticking it in my mouth.

I swallow the liquid and after a few moments I am able to get up. And just in time, because Karu stumbles and falls. I catch her and help her back to where she was previously lying down.

"Everything hurts _more_ now," she whines.

"What happened to being fine?" I tease.

"That guy," she says.

"Right... what do we do about him?" I ask.

"Throw him in the river?" Karu asks.

"I... suppose that's reasonable," I say.

Suguha and I throw the man into the river and sit down to watch.

I'm useless. Not only was it Karu who noticed him approaching, if not for her, we would have been helpless. And she's _very_ injured.

A short while later Kazuto returns.

"What happened here?" he asks.

"Some guy from Laughing Coffin," Karu answers sleepily.

"And...?"

"I killed him," Karu says, her tone suggesting she wasn't happy about it.

Kazuto didn't look too happy, though probably because Karu ended up needing to do something.

"Well anyway, I brought food," he says and Karu instantly smiles.

* * *

 **(Karu)**

"So how far is Oykot?" Suguha asks.

"And you constantly complain about me not studying..." Kirito says.

"It's about 200 kilometers away. If it was just Kirito and me in top shape we could probably get there in about a week, but I have no idea how good you or Asuna are at walking and I'm certainly nowhere near top shape," I say to her, nearly tripping over something.

"I think you're still in better shape than me," a slightly panting Asuna says.

"Not a chance. And on top of poor stamina, I nearly fall over every 30 seconds," I say.

"Which is why you should just let me carry you or something," Kirito says.

"We'd move even slower then. _Maybe_ when I can't go further I'll let you carry me," I say.

Kirito sighs and reluctantly agrees.

Walking felt like walking through water with weights on me. Like there was a lot of resistance and my limbs felt heavy. And it hurts, but that was pretty much anything right now. None of the injuries were individually all that major, so aside from blood loss, there isn't much danger, but... it hurts so much!

I feel like someone cut me like- like _everywhere_. Oh wait... that's exactly what happened.

"Hey Kirito?" I ask.

"Yeah?"

"How the hell did you avoid being hit _once_. You got through that without being hit _once_ by a bladed weapon," I say and then mumble, "No fair."

"Once we get to Oykot and you recover we can have some more training," he offers.

"Sure," I say and kick a pebble, nearly falling over from it.

"Goddamnit!" I say annoyed. This whole 'being injured' thing was getting really old, really fast. It'd been a full week we spent hanging around not moving much so I could recover a bit before we started moving.

Okay, that implies it was fine to start with, which it definitely was not. Well, it was kinda fine in the middle of the fight when I didn't really notice.

"The trek to Oykot is on relatively flat, however the city itself is in a mountain range so the last ten or so kilometers are going to have considerable altitude changes and are in general high altitude so there will be less air," Kirito says, mostly to Suguha since Asuna obviously already knew that her home city was in the mountains.

* * *

 **This chapter is a bit on the shorter side, and pretty bad, but at least it didn't take a few months.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Wow... made it to chapter 6...**

 **And the previous two chapters were within a few days of each other.**

 **Light novels are cool, s** **o I decided to (because f*** Yen Press, claiming things and making it so that it's hard to find translations) find downloads for all translated light novels for** ** _The Problem Children are Coming from Another World, Aren't They? (Mondaiji-tachi)_ ,** **_The Irregular at Magic High School_ , and _Sword Art Online (pretty sure they haven't claimed SAO yet, but better safe than sorry)_ (because those are the light novel series I've read). I have volumes 1-11 for the first and 1-17 for the second and third in english. If you're interested tell me and I'd be happy to post them somewhere and give them to you. I have no idea who translated the Magic High School ones, but I know that Mondaiji-tachi is Margref and Frozensama and that SAO is defan and tap-trans. At least the later ones (both Mondaiji-tachi and SAO)**

 **On the topic of Magic High School, I recently rewatched the anime and it reminded me of something. A question (because of the 'triumph of magic over ABC weapons' line somewhere in there, won't say where** **). Why and who the f*** decided to group biological and chemical weapons with nuclear ones. WTF?! Biological and chemical weapons should be compared to conventional explosives, which have comparable price-per-kill and weight-per-kill to the BC in ABC weapons. Meanwhile, we have atomic (nuclear) weapons with price-per-kill and weight-per-kill both hundreds, if not thousands, of times lower than any other weapon. Except maybe sniper ammo used by a good sniper. Who decided to make biological and chemical weapons 'weapons of mass destruction?' Hell, in a lot of situations they're much _weaker_ than just simple bullets or explosives. For example if the opponent has a gas mask, or, in the case of biological, a wet cloth or a simple respirator. Or if it's windy, or rainy, or in the case of some, even cold.**

 **Something that bothers me about the story itself (this applies mostly to LNs, not the anime) is that the made-up rules of magic are more consistent than the laws of physics (speed of light is 100 times the speed of sound my ass, more like a million).**

 **Well, sorry this took a while, but I've been so much worse, it's not that big a deal. 4 days got skipped because I'm a genius.**

 _ **Calling yourself a genius,**_ ** _really?_**

 **Shut up imaginary voice of nobody I just made. Anyway, as I was saying, 4 days got skipped because I'm a 'genius' *sarcasm dripping off the word*. How? Well imagine you're taking a math course which is fairly difficult for you and has monthly exams... you get where this is going. Basically had to do a month of work in 3 days plus an exam. God my hand hurts from writing so much... yeah, it's a bit hard to understand, but once I do, the homework itself takes 1 second of thinking for every minute or so of writing, in other words, I know the answer basically instantly and need to write it for a while (and I f*cking hate writing my hand). Despite writing this in past tense, this is actually only the end of the first day... hope I do decent on the exam. Lesson from this? Don't keep putting off your homework and studying until you have a month's worth due in 3 days.**

 **...At least the homework is graded by completion, not correctness, not that helps much since it's less than 5% of the total grade and I probably got all of it right anyway.**

 **Update, half way through day two: 2.33 weeks done. Much less work for week 4 than the other 3. Mathematical logic is too easy. This problem for example, was a pain, but trivial to figure out:**

 **Convert P⟷** **Q** (P if, and only if, Q) **to use only ↓** (not or, NOR): **((((P↓P)↓Q)↓((P↓P)↓Q))↓(((P↓P)↓Q)↓((P↓P)↓Q)))↓((((Q↓Q)↓P)↓((Q↓Q)↓P))↓(((Q↓Q)↓P)↓((Q↓Q)↓P)))**

 **It made me do P∧Q** (P and Q) **and P→Q** (if P then Q, or ~P∨Q ((not P) or Q)) **, so the matter of making that was trivial, just do (P→Q)∧(Q→P).**

 **Like seriously, I get it, you can express any boolean expression with just NOR or NAND. If anyone is good with boolean logic, you can tell me if I got it right, but I don't care much because the homework is graded for completion rather than correctness.**

 **Well, this whole 'month of work, 3 days to do it (plus a fourth day with an exam)' is my fault entirely, I had a whole month to do it like everyone else (well really a month - a few days because of specifics of enrolling while still technically in high school (or middle school, the procedure is the same)(even if I'm homeschooled)).**

 **Update, end day 3: done... now I just need to do well on the exam.**

 **And exam done. Felt pretty easy.**

 **Not that any of you care in the slightest, but I just felt like writing my frustration** **somewhere.**

 **You just skipped/scanned over that, didn't you? You didn't give a f***, you're here for the story. Or at least, SAO, not some totally unrelated anime/light novel series. Well, here you are.**

* * *

 **(Karu)**

"Karu, you want to take a break?" Kirito asks for the ten billionth time in the past week.

"It's been two weeks, I'm fine," I say, despite being decidedly _not_ fine. While most of the bandages had already been removed, that didn't change the fact that I still got tired really easily, at least compared to normal, I was weaker than normal, and certain actions hurt. Actually, most actions hurt, at least a little. Actually, most things still hurt quite a lot. I probably wasn't even recovered to the point I was immediately after with my previous injury because of the healing crystal then. Aside from amount of blood recovered. And I was constantly sleepy. Which was miserable because I didn't want to sleep because of nightmares. So I actually have _two_ reasons for being constantly sleepy, nightmares that keep me from getting a good night's sleep and lack of blood which makes me light headed and sleepy. No wait, _three_ , because I had to keep watch too because Asuna and Suguha couldn't and Kirito couldn't stay up all night, every night. Or even every other night or whatever.

But _tired_ wasn't something I was at the moment.

"No, you're not," Asuna comments.

"I may be a princess, but I know enough about medicine to know that there's no way you're already fine," she says.

"I meant I'm fine at the moment," I say.

"You're too stubborn," Asuna mutters.

"Would you rather I be a whiny baby?" I ask.

Asuna sighs, "No."

"Wel-"

" _But_ , I—and I'm sure Kazuto too—would much rather you don't try to pretend you aren't hurt," she says, cutting me off.

"She's too stubborn for that," Kirito says.

* * *

"A town? Do we go in or just head around?" Asuna asks.

"Chances are the 'news' will have already reached them, so we should probably avoid it... then again supplies could be useful," Kirito says.

"Well Asuna and Suguha can just walk in, and I can come with them by simply dispelling the illusion magic and wearing my hood... then again, shining silver eyes aren't very normal," I say.

"You wouldn't happen to have a pair of sunglasses?" Suguha asks.

"No, unfortunately," I say.

"Well, we can go in and buy food or whatever else we need," Asuna says, referring to herself and Suguha.

"I guess that works, I'm going to take a nap meanwhile," I say, climbing into a tree as painlessly as I can.

* * *

 **(3rd person)**

Karu—turning over in the middle of a nightmare—falls out of the tree she was sleeping in.

Kirito—who'd been sitting at the base of the tree—practically jumps to his feet and catches the no-longer-sleeping girl, who lets out a slight cry of pain.

The two look at each other for a moment before the girl blushes and looks away and Kirito sets her down.

"Remind me not to sleep in a tree again until I don't have nightmares," she mutters. The instant she mentions nightmares, she wraps her arms around Kirito and starts crying gently.

"Why?" she asks through sobs.

"Why does it have to be us? Why do we have to fight?" she whines.

"It'll be okay," Kirito says, rubbing Karu's back.

"I don't want to fight," she says quietly.

"Just rest then," Kirito says.

"Okay..." she says, trailing off, closing her eyes and slumping forward.

Carefully setting the sleeping girl against the tree, he sits down next to her, holding her hand gently.

She slumps over sideways, her head falling on Kirito's shoulder.

 _She looks so cute like- stop before I embarrass myself again._

* * *

"...Kirito?" a sleepy voice says.

Kirito turns towards Karu.

"Hey Karu, sleep well?" he asks.

"For once," she says quietly.

"That's good," Kirito says with a smile.

"No nightmares this time, thanks Kirito," she says.

"I... didn't really do anything..." Kirito says.

"Well, you let me lean on you and held my hand," she says, blushing slightly since these were generally things done by couples.

"Let's make sure not to mention that to Suguha," Kirito says.

"Not mention what to me?" the person in question asks.

""Not telling,"" the two say at the same time.

"Awww, but I'm all out of things to tease you about," Suguha pouts.

"Sugu, did you get what we needed?" Kirito asks.

"Mostly," Suguha answers.

* * *

 **(Karu)**

I don't want nightmares... but the alternative is embarrassing to the point where it might be worse. Like what am I supposed to say? 'Can I sleep with you?' No, that sounds very wrong. Maybe 'can I cuddle with you?' No, that's _worse_. I mean, Kirito _would_ say yes anyway and wouldn't pretend to misunderstand and tease me about it, but that doesn't change how embarrassing it is.

Maybe 'can I sleep next to you?' I mean, that's better... but still embarrassing. Maybe just asking him to hold my hand would be enough?

Maybe I can just wait till Kirito is asleep and just move next to him. Though that would end up with some embarrassing situations if I don't wake up before Kirito. Actually, any of those options will result in an _extremely_ embarrassing situation if I don't wake up before Suguha or—to a lesser extent—Asuna.

Except the hand holding one, that would be only moderately embarrassing.

Besides, that's rather unlikely given that even on the few nights I don't have nightmares, I consistently wake up before Asuna of Suguha.

So it's one of the last two, I guess. I'll go for hand holding, as embarrassing as it is.

Actually, I'll need to get up to keep watch anyway, so it's fine.

I untangle my cloak from around me and get up, walking over to Kirito who was keeping watch.

"Hey Karu, trouble sleeping?" he asks quietly.

I sit down next to him and rest my back against the log he too was using as a backrest and somewhat sadly answer, "As usual."

He reaches his arm behind me and pulls me towards him, hugging me. Well, half hugging, still nice though. And embarrassing, so I blush slightly and turn away.

"You wanna talk about it?" he asks.

"I haven't even fallen asleep yet, so nothing to talk about," I answer.

"Oh. You wanna stay with with me until you fall asleep?" he asks.

"Yeah," I say, yawning and allowing my head to fall back onto the log, looking at the stars.

I snuggle slightly closer to him for warmth and mutter, "Do you mind?"

"No. It's warm," he answers, keeping his head up and alert. Not that he really needed to, even I—in my half-asleep, not looking state—would probably notice if someone came.

"Wake me up in a few hours, I'll take watch," I say before moving my head somewhere more comfortable, which just happens to be Kirito's shoulder.

He chuckles ever-so-quietly and throws his cloak over me too, grabbing my hand with the arm that was previously wrapped around my shoulder.

"Thanks," I mutter, though it was probably incoherent. I close my eyes and squeeze Kirito's hand, relaxing in the warmth of two cloaks and two people.

* * *

"-ru. Karu," Kirito says, shaking me gently.

I open my eyes and rub them.

"Hey. My turn to take watch?" I ask.

"Yeah, thanks," he says. It was annoying that only Kirito or I could actually take watch because Asuna and Suguha were too easy to sneak up on. Plus, they weren't in great physical shape, so they needed rest. I mean, I wasn't either, but at this point I think I might be better than they are. Which is honestly embarrassing for an athlete and a mountain dweller, princess or not. Well, tournament matches last a few minutes at most and Asuna has had plenty of time to un-adapt from the reduced oxygen amount.

"Kirito?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to sleep here?" I ask, my face feeling slightly hot despite the cold night air. It's not that I really minded, it's just... I'm starting to think Suguha might be right. Like, I 'might' have a 'tiny' crush on Kirito... At least, that's what I think it is. Also, I'd probably end up falling asleep myself.

He chuckles slightly. "Probably not. You'd end up falling asleep then."

"Yeah, probably," I say, wrapping myself tightly in my cloak once Kirito gets up and moves over a bit before lying down.

"Wake me up if anyone shows up."

"Of course," I answer. It was unlikely at this point though. We were far enough that it was unlikely that they'd be able to find us. In fact, since we started moving towards Oykot, we'd only encountered 1 Laughing Coffin member and 1 random hunter who didn't recognize us and just left us be with some food.

Soon we'd probably be able to start actually getting a full nights sleep, which would be useful when we start climbing the mountain.

In just a few minutes, Kirito was sound asleep and I was left staring at the stars alone.

It was peaceful and the cool, pleasant wind blew across my face.

I sniff the air and smell a storm. I look around and see clouds in the sky, however they didn't look like they were coming this way and were far, so we'd probably be good. There'd only been a few times it rained on our trip and we would generally tie ourselves in trees with lots of leaves and wrap ourselves tightly in our cloaks or—when there were any—sleep under fir trees, which with their layers of foliage blocked out the rain completely and since they went down to the ground, they also blocked the wind and anyone from potentially seeing you.

However in this case, there were no firs or leafy trees, so it was a good thing the storm probably wasn't going this way.

I see some lightning in the storm and after about 2 minutes—I counted to measure the distance—I could hear thunder. I do a bit of mental math and get something like 40 kilometers away. That's plenty far.

I look around, may gaze eventually settling on Kirito's sleeping face. I feel my face heat up and look away, but soon find my gaze drawn towards him again.

 _I could just walk over to him and-_ No.

However my thoughts kept drifting back in that direction.

To distract myself from whatever I was thinking, I stand up and draw my sword, quietly clearing an area of leaves and swinging my sword. I immediately regret my decision as pain shoots through the various wounds on my body and I let out a silent cry of pain.

I swing my sword again, but much slower. Again and again and again. My arms would be tired, but it's not like a need arms for walking.

* * *

As the dawn light shines on Kirito's face, he opens his eyes and sits up. Finally... morning. I was probably about to fall asleep, no matter how hard I tried otherwise. My thoughts and eyes during the watch ended up continually drifting to Kirito, and sometimes to what I'd do without him... or rather, that I have no idea what I'd do without him. And some times more... intimate things.

"'Morning Karu."

"Good morning," I answer, followed by a yawn, tempted to just fall asleep. I'll just do that... I lean back and close my eyes.

Kirito sits down next to me since there wasn't really anything to do. No camp to pack up, no fire to light (since we already had embers from last night and would just need to add something dry to start it again). I open my eyes and turn my head to him.

"Sorry... you ended up staying up most of the night," Kirito apologizes.

"It's fine," I say with a yawn, "You stay up most of the night most nights. Besides, we're probably not leaving for a while longer anyway."

"Do you want to take a nap before Suguha or Asuna wake up?" Kirito asks.

"That... *yawn* ...is what I was planning to do," I say, leaning on him.

He smiles and moves some of my hair out of my face. "Wake me up sometime... not soon," I say and close my eyes.

I hear Kirito chuckle slightly and quietly say, "Sure."

I scoot as close as I can to Kirito and feel him wrap an arm around my shoulder.

"Just sleep a little for now," Kirito says and squeezes me slightly, causing me to wince.

"Sorry!" he says hurriedly.

"It's alright..." I say.

* * *

"-you two," came Asuna's voice, waking me from my relatively—at least as far as my sleep recently—peaceful sleep.

"Hey Asuna," Kirito replies.

"ey Aua," I mumble incoherently, causing Kirito to chuckle.

"You two are awfully cozy," Asuna teases.

"'m sleepy," I mumble, slightly more understandably this time.

"You two _sure_ you're not a couple...?" Asuna teases.

I feel my face heat up and see Kirito turn red before pushing away from Kirito and creating some distance. And fall on my side.

"Gah!" I involuntarily let out a cry of pain and clutch my side which I had hurt.

"Are you alright?" Asuna asks hurriedly.

"I..." I pause, moving around a bit, "think so," I finish after confirming nothing hurt... much.

"What's going on?" a startled Suguha asks.

"Nothing!" I say hurriedly.

"I was just teasing them a- mumph," Asuna says before Kirito covers her mouth with his hand.

"What were they doing?" Suguha asks.

When Asuna tries to speak, Kirito covers her mouth again.

"You know what... I don't want to know," Suguha says, causing both Kirito and me to breathe a sigh of relief. I mean, it wouldn't be that bad... but it would be a pain.

And the worst part of being teased is that every time it reminds me that I'm starting to wish it wasn't just teasing. I mean, us actually being together... together-together together, that is. **(yes, I did that on purpose, bite me)**

"I'm gonna go start the fire and cook something," Asuna says. Oh yes, surprisingly, the princess can cook. Really well. Well, at least with decent ingredients. Ignore that three of the four people here are princesses and that the last one is a prince so saying 'the princess' is about as informative as saying 'the girl' or whatever. Which—in that context—would actually be sufficient.

Meanwhile... "I'll go back to sleep if that's alright," I say with a yawn.

"That's fine," Asuna says.

* * *

The small group of travels enter a clearing in the woods. It looked artificial, the trees had been cut down and the tree stumps dug out or burned.

In the middle stood a large, rather fancy, old fashioned house **(I don't really know how to describe a Japanese mansion, but know that Oykot has Japanese style culture and architecture)**.

Suddenly Asuna freezes.

"Asuna?" Kirito asks.

"This is familiar, just can't quite place my finger on it," she answers.

"You know this place?" I ask curiously.

"Oh! It's my grandparents house, though the last time I got to come here I was very young," Asuna exclaims.

"Well... that's great," I say without a trace of sarcasm.

Asuna jogs up to the front of the house, the three of us following behind. Of course, the moment I start running I end up tripping over the remains of a tree stump.

I roll as I fall and manage to get to my feet with only a little stumbling and fast enough that Kirito doesn't get a chance to help, because that's generally embarrassing.

"Ow ow ow ow," I mutter, rubbing my shoulder which had hit the ground.

"You alright?" Suguha asks.

"Yeah, totally fine," I say with a hint of sarcasm.

"If you insist," Suguha says and we catch up to the waiting Asuna.

She walks up to the door and knocks gently.

Some voices could be heard inside before hurried steps approached the door. Small steps and sounds like 3 separate things, so probably either an invalid or an old person with a cane. Of course, knowing it was Asuna's grandparents tells me that it's the former.

"Who's- Asuna dear!" the old lady who opens the door says, hurrying over to Asuna and hugging her.

"You haven't visited in so long! We missed you!" she says, seemingly completely oblivious to Suguha, Kirito, and I.

"Grandpa!" Asuna says in most un-Asuna like fashion and hugs the old man who had come out.

"Asuna," the old man cheerfully says and hugs her back.

After the brief reunion, Asuna's grandpa asks, "So who are your friends?"

"Karu, Kazuto, and Suguha," she says, pointing to me, Kirito, and Suguha.

"As in the prince and princess of Aincrad?" the grandma asks in surprise. I guess they still consider themselves as people of Oykot, even if they live several tens of kilometers into Aincrad.

Asuna nods.

"Well come inside, come inside, you 4 look tired," Asuna's grandma says.

* * *

After we came inside and were offered tea and food (which we gladly accepted), Asuna decided to explain our current situation and how us being here was entirely coincidence, which earned a _lot_ of worry from Asuna's grandparents. Like a _lot_. Finding out that your granddaughter is being pursued by an organization of assassins that successfully kill pretty much everyone at Aincrad's castle. During a party with lots of guards. Or perhaps it's because the guards were drunk.

* * *

 **I know this is a rather random ending, but I felt like putting an end to this chapter. Sorry for the literal 1000 words of AN.**


End file.
